Oct. 30, 2005
Contact: Brian McCann
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Freshman Erin Withrow recorded nine saves, three of which came in overtime, as Cleveland State and Youngstown State played to a 0-0 scoreless tie on Sunday afternoon at YSU's Stambaugh Field.
The tie snapped a 36-game losing streak for the Vikings dating back to the origin of the program at the start of the 2004 season. It was also only the second time in school annals that CSU played a match into overtime.
"It is good to finally put something on the scoreboard besides a loss," head coach Derrek Falor said. "We had some opportunities to turn this into a win, but couldn't take advantage of our opportunities."
Play during the first half was centered around the midfield as Youngstown State held a slight, 6-2 edge in shots with Withrow recording three saves.
The Penguins controlled the offensive flow at the start of the half, part of an 11-5 shooting edge over the last 45 minutes of regulation.
"They were in our face for about the first 25 minutes of the second half," Falor said. "Ashley Spahn and Andrea Loejos did a nice job defensively against Youngstown State's forwards and even though we got a little ragged at the start of the half, we rallied to put things back together."
The Penguins again picked up the tempo at the start of overtime as Withrow was forced to make three nice saves during the first 10-minute session. The tide turned in the second overtime as freshman Abbie Kakias had two good scoring opportunities in the final three minutes, that last coming in the final seconds, but YSU netminder Jessica Yarter turned back both shots as part of a five-save effort.
The shutout was the first in the collegiate career of Withrow, who leads the Horizon League in both saves (118) and saves per game (6.6).
The Vikings will carry an 0-17-1 record into next week's Horizon League Championship. CSU will be the No. 8 seed and face regular season champion and top-seed UW-Milwaukee beginning at 11 a.m. CST on Thursday (Nov. 3). UW-Milwaukee claimed a 3-0 win in the first meeting between the two teams earlier this season.
