Binghamton and UMass Lowell are moving on in the 2024 America East Women’s Soccer Championship. The two teams each moved past their quarterfinal final opponents on Sunday afternoon to advance to the semifinals.
The No. 3 Bearcats and No. 6 Vermont played to a scoreless tie before Binghamton advanced on penalty kicks, 3-2 in one quarterfinal while No. 4 UMass Lowell downed No. 5 Bryant, 2-1, in the other contest as Mia Eva Girgis’ second-half score proved to be the difference.
Binghamton will visit No. 2 New Hampshire in the semifinals while UMass Lowell heads to Orono, Maine to take on regular-season champion and top-seeded Maine in the other semi. Both games kick off shortly after 6 p.m. and will air on ESPN+.
Quarterfinals Recap
#3 Binghamton 0, #6 Vermont 0 (Binghamton advances on PKs, 3-2)
- Neither team was able to find the back of the net in the first half, though Vermont held a 7-4 edge in shots.
- In the second half, the Catamounts outshot the Bearcats 8-4, forcing four saves but were unable to break through.
- After two scoreless overtime periods the game advanced to penalty kicks.
- Vermont’s Jill Brody connected on the first PK, but Binghamton keeper Rebecca Kessler came up with consecutive saves as the Bearcats tied it up 1-1 after three rounds.
- Each team scored once more to tie 2-2 after five rounds.
- In the sixth round, Kessler made her fourth penalty save and Hannah Mimas came through with a goal to help the Bearcats advance to their third straight #AEWSOC semifinal.
#4 UMass Lowell 2, #5 Bryant 1
- Hope Santaniello started the scoring right away as she took Hilary Jaen’s feed and went streaking down the left side before burying a shot into the next just 2:15 into the contest.
- Caitlin Forshay tied up the game exactly 33 minutes later as she took a feed from Catherine Bean, a first-team All-Conference performer, to tie the game 1-1 in the 36th minute.
- The game stayed deadlocked until Girgis knocked in a rebound in the 67th minute.
- UMass Lowell’s Taylor Burgess made eight saves in the net while Selena Negron made five for Bryant.
- The River Hawks have now reached the semifinals in four of the last five seasons.
Stay up-to-date on the tournament by visiting Championship Central for streaming and live stats links as well as box scores, highlights and recaps following each round in addition to team information, tournament history and more.
Follow @AmericaEast on X (Formerly Twitter) and Instagram to get the real-time championship updates. Use the #AEChamps and #AEWSOC hashtags to join the conversation.
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