Shippensburg Survive Shootout Against IUP to Reach PSAC Final Against Kutztown
Nobody scored for 80 minutes. Then Grace Meinke decided a final.
Shippensburg beat IUP 1-0 in a penalty shootout on Friday afternoon at a cold and windy Robb Sports Complex, and the defending PSAC champions are back in the final. Regulation couldn’t separate them. Two 10-minute periods of seven-on-seven overtime couldn’t either. So it came down to five rounds of one-on-ones, and Meinke stopped four of IUP’s five attempts.
She’d already denied 15-goal scorer Kasey Rieger among the first two. Anne Gardner hammered home her own rebound to open the scoring for Shippensburg, Elaina Fragassi beat Celeste Pagliaroli with a spinning toe drag to make it 2-0, and Juana Caracotche Picone finished it, feinting a reverse hit, sending the IUP keeper to the floor and slotting home the winner.
It was no robbery. Shippensburg outshot IUP 25-4 and won the penalty corner count 14-2. Pagliaroli made 14 saves to keep the Crimson Hawks in it, and the Raiders poured on 19 shots in the second half alone. But the ball wouldn’t go in, and by overtime both sides were running on empty, one shot each across the two extra periods. In the end it took a shootout, and Meinke, who’d faced just four shots all afternoon, was the difference.
That’s Shippensburg’s first shootout win since September 2022, and it keeps a remarkable run going. Meinke has now kept five straight shutouts, and the Raiders are 15-2.
The rematch nobody wanted to miss
Waiting for them on Sunday are Kutztown, who beat East Stroudsburg 2-0 in Friday’s other semi-final behind goals from Jessica Traynor and Bree Zoccolo. It’s the final this whole conference season has been building towards, and it’s a rematch with a recent score to settle. Shippensburg handed Kutztown their only defeat of the season, 1-0 at home on 24 October.
Kutztown have been the best side in the country all season. They lead the PSAC in goals, assists and penalty corners, they’re 18-1, and this is their eighth straight PSAC tournament appearance. But Shippensburg are the champions, they’re at home, and they’ve already beaten Kutztown once. Sunday is the game the whole conference has been waiting for.
The final is at noon ET (10pm PKT) on Sunday at Robb Sports Complex in Shippensburg. For our money, it’s a coin flip, and the first goal wins it.
