#4 PENN ST. ALTOONA, #6 MT. ALOYSIUS WOMEN EARN AMCC FIRST ROUND VICTORIES

No. 4 Penn State Altoona and No. 6 Mount Aloysius College each earned first round victories in the AMCC Women's Soccer Championship Tournament to advance to the semifinal round on Wednesday evening. Penn State Altoona got the 7-0 victory over No. 5 Hilbert College, while the Mounties got the 2-0 upset win over No. 3 Alfred State College.

Penn State Altoona 7, Hilbert 0
The fourth-seeded Penn State Altoona women's soccer team shut out fifth seed Hilbert College 7-0 at Spring Run Stadium. Sadie McConnell scored a goal and added three assists for Penn State Altoona, tying for the second-most assists in a game in Lions history. After both teams got off to a slow start, Penn State Altoona finally put a goal on the board at the 27:36 mark. Mallorie Smith sent a pass ahead to McConnell, who received it in Hilbert territory, dribbled into the box, and kicked a shot through the keeper's legs for her second goal of the season. The Lions' 1-0 advantage remained until midway through the second half, when Penn State Altoona broke the game open with a flurry of goals. In the 63rd minute, McConnell sailed a pass into the box, where Jordan Yaletsko tapped a shot past the keeper from deep inside the box to double Penn State Altoona's lead at 62:44. The Lions struck again less than a minute later to increase their lead to 3-0. McConnell dribbled to the end line and centered a pass into the box, where Smith took it and sent a shot into the bottom left corner of the goal at 63:38 to give Penn State Altoona a three-goal advantage. Exactly seven minutes later, Rachel Rutkowski scored her first collegiate goal to add to the home team's total. McConnell passed the ball to Rutkowski from the right sideline, and Rutkowski looped a long shot overtop the keeper at 70:38 for her first career goal, making it 4-0. Just over two minutes after that, Penn State Altoona upped its lead to 5-0. Rutkowski sent the ball to the left of the Hilbert goal, and Farrell collected it and fired a shot into the open goal from short range to give the Lions' a five-goal advantage at the 73:05 mark. Hailey Yaletsko scored her first collegiate goal at the 78:30 mark, when she headed a deflection into the right side of the goal from six yards away. Yaletsko struck again in the 90th minute, when Kiley Johnes placed a pass into the right side of the box, and Yaletsko scored on a shot from 10 yards to set Penn State Altoona's lead at 7-0 at 89:17.

Adeline Baustert made three stops between the pipes for Penn State Altoona to notch her sixth win of the season and fifth shutout.

With the win, Penn State Altoona advances to the semifinal round of the tournament, and the Lions will travel to face top seed Pitt-Greensburg for their next game on Wednesday, November 2 at 2:00 p.m.

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Mount Aloysius 2, Alfred State 0
The Alfred State Pioneers hosted an AMCC postseason game for the first time in program history, but it was the sixth-seeded Mount Aloysius Mounties who played spoilers by getting the big upset win over the No. 3 seed. The game remained scoreless through 75 minutes when  Mount Aloysius broke the tie on a corner kick goal. Mountie sophomore M Jordan Mason assisted on Jasmine Hinton's seventh goal of the season for the Mounties. Riding that momentum, Mason then knocked one in by herself just three minutes later for Mount Aloysius to make it 2-0 in the 78th minute. Mountie freshman GK Heidi Patten got the shutout victory in goal, recording three saves on the day, playing the full 90 minutes. 

The Mounties advance to the AMCC semifinals and will take on No. 2 Penn State Behrend on Wednesday, November 2 at 3:00 p.m.