Garden City, N.Y. - The top-seeded Adelphi University women's soccer team saw its bid for a second Northeast-10 Conference title in three years thwarted by the eighth-seeded Merrimack College Warriors in a quarterfinal upset on Tuesday afternoon at Motamed Field, 2-1.

All the scoring took place in the first half for both teams, as Adelphi (15-3) trailed as early as the eighth minute before the visiting Warriors (10-8) doubled their lead thanks to an owl goal in the 28th. 

Merrimack's Sarah Boucher took a right-side cross from Tori Daigle into the space between Isabel Sandstrom and the right post for the early Merrimack lead, which doubled as a shot from Emily Maier rebounded off Adelphi in a clear attempt for the owl goal later in the half.

Despite a 14-8 edge in first-half shots, and a 24-18 edge overall, the Panthers were unable to find the scoring touch which they did during the regular-season meeting between the two teams, a 6-1 final in Garden City on Sept. 9. Savannah Taylor got the Panthers on the board in the 30th minute, heading Erica Bleimeyer's feed into the top left corner past Warrior keeper Erin Fulton.

Fulton got help from her defense twice in the opening half as Adelphi looked to score, with two defensive saves coming from the Warriors' end. Nonetheless, the Merrimack keeper stopped a total of 13 Panther shots in the contest, which included turning aside a penalty kick off the foot of Jeanine Nunez in the 38th minute. 

Adelphi's freshman keeper did her part in the remaining minutes, keeping the attacking Warriors off the board with five second-half saves and a career-high eight in total, but the Panthers were unable to tie the contest over the second 45 minutes. 

Adelphi, the top-ranked team in the East Region in the last edition of the NCAA Division II regional rankings last week, will now await its fate at the hands of the regional committee in regards to qualifying for the NCAA Tournament for the third straight year. 

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About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 26 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.

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