Sophomore Lauren Byrne (Northport, NY/Northport) fed classmate Abbie West (Dalton, MA/Wahcoviah) will a pass to the middle of the field and West, who fought off two defenders and then made a strong pivot, fired a shot to the right of Vassar's goaltender as the Dutchwomen opened the defense of their 1999 New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association title by defeating the Brewers, 1-0, Tuesday on Garis Field. Union will now meet Hamilton (a 3-2 winner over RIT) in a semi-final game Saturday at 11 a.m. at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.
The championship is set for Sunday at 1 p.m. with the consolation game scheduled for Sunday at 10 a.m. Both will be held at Vassar.
Byrne, who scored the winning goal in last year's 2-1 overtime victory over St. Lawrence in the 1999 title game (which was also held at Vassar), beat a Brewer defender to the ball at the right sideline and chipped a shot to the middle of the field about 20 yards in front of the goalmouth. West, who was not expected to be at the game because of a death in the family, outfought two Vassar defenders for the ball, turned, and with Brewers hanging all over her, just beat the diving Vassar goalie. The score came with 11:29 left to play.
Union, which outshot Vassar, 24-5, got a three-save performance from sophomore goalie Carolyn Stead (Portland, ME/Deering), who recorded the Dutchwomen's record-setting 12th shutout of the year. The 14-1-1 Dutchwomen have now outscored the opposition by a whopping 64-5 margin.
Union's next opponents, Hamilton, will be looking to avenge an earlier 1-0 loss to the Dutchwomen. The game's only score came on a penalty kick by junior Tonia Deligiannis (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna). The other semi-final game pits Oswego, which beat Rensselaer 3-2, against St. Lawrence, which captured a 3-0 victory over Plattsburgh.
The Dutchwomen, who own a berth in next week's NCAA championship tournament by virtue of their UCAA regular-season championship, will find out on Sunday night who and where they play.