Stony Brook Edged by No. 9 Maryland in NCAA Women's Soccer 1st round

Stony Brook Edged by No. 9 Maryland in NCAA Women's Soccer 1st round

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Courtesy Stony Brook Athletics
Box Score

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In its first-ever NCAA Tournament game, the Stony Brook women's soccer team took No. 9 Maryland to the wire on the legs of junior goalkeeper Ashley Castanio, who made a career-high nine saves. Ultimately, two Terps goals in the last 5:56 led to a 2-0 Seawolves loss in the NCAA first round Saturday night at Ludwig Field.

Stony Brook concludes its most successful season in program history at 12-7-3 with its first-ever America East championship and NCAA Tournament appearance. Maryland, the No. 4 seed in the top left portion of the bracket, moves to the second round to play Denver.

"We couldn't be more proud of the team," said head coach Sue Ryan. "We took the number nine team in the country to the limit and battled them blow for blow. We had a couple good chances, but we just weren't able to capitalize on them. I thought we had a good game plan - we did a good job containing their top players, who didn't get many dangerous looks despite the number of shots. Our seniors played a great game, and Ashley was confident and locked down in goal; she was terrific."

The Seawolves held the No. 9 ranked team in the country scoreless for the first 85 minutes of the contest until the Terps' Becky Kaplan struck a ball from 22-yards out with her right foot that beat Castanio low to the far post.

Kaplan also was involved in the second goal, crossing a ball into the box that found Hayley Brock who kicked the ball while sliding from 10-yards out to make it 2-0 in the 88th minute.

Castanio had the game of her life. She made a diving save to her right in the first half on a shot by Kaplan in the eighth minute. In the 67th minute, she reached high to poke an Ashley Spivey shot over the net. In the 80th minute, she stoned Spivey again on a wide open, point-blank shot. In total, she made nine saves and snuffed out a bunch of Maryland corner kicks as well.