Emily Thomas Earns MVP Honors as IUP Wins PSAC Championship

Complete Boxscore

Emily Thomas scored twice as part of a three-goal IUP explosion in a span of 17 minutes in the first half, and the Indians went on to a 3-2 victory over Kutztown in the PSAC women's soccer title game Sunday.

The host Indians (19-3) won the conference championship for the first time since 1995 and may have moved themselves in position to earn their first ever trip to the NCAA Division II tournament.  That announcement will be made Monday evening.

First and second round games in the Northeast Region will be played November 12 and 14 at a site that will also be determined on Monday.

Prior to this season, IUP had not won a PSAC tournament game since taking home the league title nine years ago.  But the Indians blanked regionally-ranked squads in Lock Haven and Slippery Rock to earn a home game in the final.

Kutztown, which was seeking its first PSAC title, is 14-5-2 on the season.

Thomas was named the MVP of the tournament after scoring a pair of goals midway through the first half that wiped out an early 1-0 Kutztown lead.

The Golden Bears took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Kelly Murdock, assisted by Lauren Tatro, with 13 minutes expired before Thomas tied it at the 23-minute mark off an assist by Crystal Heder.

Just two minutes later, Thomas gave IUP the lead for good when she took a pass from Erin Falce and beat Kutztown goalkeeper Nicki Mitchell.

Thomas scored four of IUP's five goals in the tournament, tallying the lone goal of the game in 1-0 wins over Lock Haven and Slippery Rock in the first two rounds.  She has a total of 10 goals on the season.

IUP built its lead to 3-1 with five minutes left before halftime when Falce scored off a feed from Shelley Queiser.  Falce has scored 29 times this season but had been held scoreless in the tournament until her three points on Sunday.

Kutztown controlled play for most of the second half, outshooting IUP 4-1 over the final 45 minutes, and pulled to within 3-2 when Kim Kelty scored with 27 minutes remaining on the clock.  Ashley Smith assisted on the Kelty goal.

But the IUP defense and goalkeeper Sarah Daw kept the Golden Bears from scoring the equalizer.  Daw finished with seven saves to extend her school record in that department to 355.

Kutztown finished with a 9-7 edge in shots while both teams took five corner kicks.  Mitchell stopped three IUP shots.