Women's Soccer Slips Past Worcester State, 3-2 in MASCAC Semis

WESTFIELD, Mass. -  Westfield State junior forward Delaney Parker (Orange, Mass./Mahar) scored a pair of goals and Kiana Muratsuka (Mililani, Hawaii) handed out three assists as Westfield State held off Worcenster State, 3-2 in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference semifinals at Alumni Field on Friday afternoon.

With the win, Westfield advances to Sunday's championship game to play the winner of tonight's other semifinal round game, as top seed Bridgewater hosts Fitchburg State at 7:00 p.m. tonight.  Sunday's title game time and site will be determined following tonight's second semifinal.

Westfield will be seeking their third straight conference tournament title an it's 10^th under 18^th year head coach Todd Ditmar.

Second-seeded Westfield is now 12-6-1overall in the season, while third-seed Worcester State's year comes to a close at 6-9-2.

Westfield took command early in the match as Parker launched a left-footed blast from the top left corner of the 18 just 6:10 into the match. Owls' goalkeeper Julia Robak's (Chicopee, Mass./Comp) punt sailed to midfield where Muratsuka tapped the ball to Morgan Berthiaume (Webster, Mass./Douglas) , who slotted a long through ball to Parker to set up the goal.

Westfield grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 23^rd minute as the Owls took advantage when a pair of Worcester State defenders collided while going after a header, that let Muratsaka tap a back pass to Berthiaume, who loaded up a blast from 25 yards out on the left side to the far post for the goal.

Westfield outshot the Lancers 10-4 in the first half.

Worcester trimmed the lead to 2-1 in the 54^th minute when Abby Bond (Bolton, Mass./Nashoba) slotted a long through ball to Erin Condon (E. Bridgewater, Mass.), who fired through traffic and beat Robak to her right for the goal.

Westfield regained the two-goal cushion midway through the second half, getting good buildup from the midfield as Maratsuka sent the ball ahead on the left side to Tia Tollis (E. Longmeadow, Mass.), who found Parked alone on the right side, where she beat Worcester goalkeeper Ella Gumienny (Douglas, Mass./Blackstone Valley) with a high shot to make the Owls lead 3-1.

Parker leads the MASCAC with 17 goals and 10 assists for 44 points this season.   Her 17 goals and 44 points are both the sixth-best single season totals in program history.

The Lancers never surrendered.  After a restart that an Owls' header failed to clear, Emma Jacob (Billerica, Mass.) centered a pass from the left side to Condon, unmarked on the penalty spot, and she slid a shot into the left side of the net to cut the lead back to 3-2 with just over 12 minutes left in the match.

Worcester pressed late to try to equalize but couldn't get a tying goal.

Westfield's Muratsuka lofted a high shot from 40 yards out that ricocheted off the top of the cross bar with about 5 minutes left that could have put the game away.  Worcester played a long through ball that Robak smothered at the top of the penalty area in final 20 seconds to preserve the win for Westfield.

Robak finished with three saves for the Owls, while Gumienny stopped five shots for the Lancers.

Westfield held a 17-9 edge in total shots, while corner kicks were even at three each.