Schuylkill Snaps Mont Alto's Championship Streak, Earns First Women's Soccer Title

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - The 2024 Penn State University Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Championship wanted to deliver, and deliver it did. And it needed overtime to do it.

Two-seed Penn State Schuylkill knocked off three-time defending champions Penn State Mont Alto on a Brittney Holland goal just 4:19 into the first overtime period, giving Schuylkill a 2-1 win and its first women's soccer title in program history.

PSUAC Coach of the Year Kaylee Berkheiser led her team into Panzer Stadium on the University Park campus after a regular season that saw her team lose twice to Mont Alto by equal 2-1 scores. After the teams went scoreless in the first half, it felt like Schuylkill might face heartbreak again. An own goal after a Mont Alto attack put Schuylkill in a 1-0 hole in the 64th minute.

It wouldn't last long as Gaby Navarro notched an unassisted goal for Schuylkill to make it 1-1 with less than 15 minutes to play. It would stay knotted at one through 90 minutes, requiring the extra periods and golden goal. 

Holland broke open down the middle and beat the keeper who had stepped up to cut off the angle, but it was too late as teh ball found the back of the net to secure the win and the title.

Schuylkill took 15 shots on the evening, five more than Mont Alto. Sophie Bowersox made six saves for Mont Alto and the teams each had only two corner kicks in a game that was not reliant on set pieces for most of the contest.

Both teams will await their fate and hope for an at-large berth in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association Division II Women's Soccer National Championship tournament scheduled to begin November 14th in Pittsburgh, Pa. The PSUAC does not meet the six team requirement to earn an automatic berth in women's soccer.