Shippensburg University’s women’s soccer team faced the No. 8 nationally ranked Kutztown Golden Bears on Saturday at David See Field. The team warmed up in their Live Like Levi shirts and played with passion and drive for him.
With a weather delay after about 20 minutes of play due to lightning strikes, the first half resumed when the storm cleared.
Within the first minute of resumed play, the Golden Bears scored off a corner kick from sophomore Katelyn Economopoulos.
The score remained 1-0 at the end of the half. Fifteen minutes into the second half, SU senior Olivia Stephen scored off a free kick.
Stephen said about her tying goal, “Walking up to that free kick, I knew I needed to hit it for the girls that had my back and the bigger cause we were playing for.”
Stephen was the lone goal scorer in the team’s last appearance against Shepherd. Her crucial goal in this game lit the fire for the tone of the match and said, “The feeling was unexplainable. A tie against a highly ranked team is huge for us, and it’s only up from here.”
About six minutes after Stephen’s goal, SU sophomore Gaby Walker kicked a cross through Kutztown’s penalty area. Ashley Hughes finished it with a goal to give the Raiders the lead.
The Golden Bears returned the favor with a newfound sense of urgency, pouncing on any opportunity in front of SU’s goal line. At 25 minutes into the second half, Kutztown graduate student Isabella Rossetti scored.
SU goalkeeper Kirstin Brown made 16 saves throughout the game, the most in one match since 2009.
Center defender for the Raiders, senior Suzy Dietrich, said, “We played a game that was for something bigger than our team. We wanted to come out and play with fight and passion and we did that. It’s a great step forward for our team and it gives us hope for the rest of the season.”
The team will appear again on Wednesday against the Millersville Marauders at 7 p.m.
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