Top Moment No. 19: Women’s Soccer Stuns Eventual NEC Tournament Champions LIU In League Opener

EMMITSBURG, Md. – The Mount St. Mary's women's soccer team was in the Northeast Conference (NEC) playoff hunt going into the final weekend of the 2011 season. The postseason chase began on the last September Friday night at Waldron Family Stadium with a 1-0 victory against LIU Brooklyn for our No. 19 Moment in the 2011-12 Top-20 Countdown.

Coming into the game against the Blackbirds, the Mount was 0-3-1 at Waldron Family Stadium with three 1-0 losses and a double-overtime scoreless result. The Mount had not scored in 363 minutes and 59 seconds at home before senior Sadie Winship (York, Pa./Eastern York) buried the Mount's first goal at Waldron Family Stadium and to give the Mountaineers a 1-0 lead in the 68th minute.

Winship, who had the No. 15 moment in the 2009-10 Top-15 Moments Countdown, was able to hold off the defender and rifle the decisive tally from 18-yards out after a nice passing combination of Ragan Cote (Myrtle Beach, S.C./Myrtle Beach) to Mary McCarron (Beltsville, Md./Elizabeth Seton) to Winship at the 67:37 mark.

From there, the Mount defense held strong in the 1-0 victory. Senior netminder Alicia Miller (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) had an outstanding game, making 10 saves to pick up her second-consecutive shutout and tie Anna Lebo for the school record for shutouts with 10.

It was a great win for the Mount women's soccer team to set up the excitement for the rest of the season while LIU Brooklyn rebounded from that weekend to go on to win the NEC Tournament title.

Mount St. Mary's went 1-3 in the next four league games, but remained in contention after sweeping the final home weekend of the year.  In the first game of that weekend, it was the Winship and Miller show again. Winship scored the decisive tally at 42:19 and Miller made five saves while establishing a new program standard with her 11th career shutout in a 1-0 win against Central Connecticut State on Oct. 21. The squad then won on senior day 4-1 against Quinnipiac two days later, but freshman Alicia Mirando (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity)  stole the show with two goals in a span of one minute and 36 seconds late in the match.

The Mount then went into the final weekend at Bryant and Sacred Heart needing wins to pick up its first NEC Tournament berth since 1997, but fell to Bryant 2-1 and Sacred Heart 2-0 to be eliminated from contention.

Miller was named to the All-NEC second team after playing every minute in goal this year with a 1.39 goals against average, 111 saves and four shutouts to cap a record-breaking career.  She leaves the Mount as the school's all-time leader in saves (430), wins (18), shutouts (11), games played (71) and started (69) by a goalkeeper and minutes played by a keeper (6275).   She was fifth all-time at the Mount with a career .768 save percentage and a 1.86 goals against average. Mirando was named to the NEC All-Rookie team after posting three goals in 16 games.

Mount St. Mary's finished the 2011 season 6-10-2 overall and 4-6-0 in the NEC.

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Schedule Of Release For The 2011-12 Top-20 Moments Countdown
No. 20: One Ring Rules Them All - Men's Basketball Celebrates 50th Anniversary of 1961-62 National Championship
No. 19: Women's Soccer Stuns Eventual NEC Tournament Champions LIU In League Opener
No. 18: Friday, June 29, 2012
No. 17: Monday, July 2, 2012
No. 16: Friday, July 6, 2012
No. 15: Monday, July 9, 2012
No. 14: Wednesday, July 11, 2012
No. 13: Friday, July 13, 2012
No. 12: Monday, July 16, 2012
No. 11: Wednesday, July 18, 2012
No. 10: Friday, July 20, 2012
No. 9: Monday, July 23, 2012
No. 8: Wednesday, July 25, 2012
No. 7: Friday, July 27, 2012
No. 6: Monday, July 30, 2012
No. 5: Wednesday, August 1, 2012
No. 4: Friday, August 3, 2012
No. 3: Monday, August 6, 2012
No. 2: Wednesday, August 8, 2012
No. 1: Friday, August 10, 2012