Parker Nets a Pair of Goals, Owls Defeat Worcester 3-1

Westfield, Mass. – The Westfield State women's soccer team picked up a key conference road victory against Worcester State, 3-1, Saturday afternoon at John F. Coughlin Memorial Field in Worcester. Westfield State improves to 6-4-1 and moves to 3-0 in conference. With the loss, Worcester State falls to 5-5-1 overall on the season and 2-1 in conference play.

Owls' first year forward, Delaney Parker (Orange, Mass.) recorded her 14^th and 15^th goals of the season in the first half. Both goals came off of passes from Jenn Rennich (Bedford, Mass.) breaking through the Lancer defense.  Ashley Spellman (Lancaster, Mass.) had three strong saves in the first half keeping Westfield to only two goals going into half time. Jaida Cochran (Middleboro, Mass.) had an early opportunity but a defensive save from Allie Marrier (Dudley, Mass.) kept the ball out of the net.

Madi Dufries (Leicester, Mass.) connected on a pass from Rennich to score the Owls' final goal of the game in the 60^th minute of action. Less than one minute later the Lancers' answered back with their lone goal of the game when Megan Gurlitz (Auburn, Mass.) put one past the Owls' goalkeeper off a textbook cross from Ali Maldonado (Rutland, Mass.). The remainder of the game proved to be a defensive battle between both teams, each only having seven shots in the half.

Spellman made seven saves in her 90 minutes of action, while Westfield goalkeeper, Lauryn Davis (Templeton, Mass.) had four. Wesfield State had a 17-14 shot advantage.

Westfield State will return to action on Wednesday at home against Western New England University at Alumni Field at 4:00 P.M. Worcester State will play on Tuesday on the road at Western Connecticut kicking off at 6:00 P.M.