ITHACA, N.Y. -- The women's soccer team (12-4-1) is hosting this weekend's Empire 8 Championship Tournament. The Bombers earned the top seed and right to host the four-team playoffs by winning the conference's regular-season title with an 8-0-0 record. Ithaca takes on fourth-seeded Stevens Institute of Technology (6-11-0) at 11:30 a.m. in Saturday's first semifinal with second-seeded Nazareth (10-6-1) facing third-seeded St. John Fisher (6-9-2) at 1:30 p.m. in the second. Saturday's winners will meet Sunday at noon with the Empire 8's automatic bid to the NCAA playoffs at stake. All three games will be played at Ithaca's Carp Wood Field.
Empire 8 Championship Tournament coverage
The Bombers have outscored their opponents 50-16 this fall, including a 32-4 advantage in Empire 8 games. None of the other three playoff teams scored a goal on Ithaca this season.
The Empire 8's top three scorers are all Bombers. Senior midfielder Amy Scheffer (Schalmont/Schenectady), the MVP of last year's Empire 8 Championship Tournament, has scored 29 points (13 goals, three assists), including 24 points in eight league matches. Her 90 points and 35 goals both rank second all-time at Ithaca. Freshman forward Rachael Palladino (Groton/Lansing) has scored 27 points on 10 goals and seven assists; all three figures match the program's single-season freshman records. Forward Lauren Koppel (Southside/Rockville Center), a graduate student, has scored 25 points (10 goals, five assists).
Freshman forward Julie Winn (Sutton/Sutton, Mass.) has scored nine points (three goals, three assists). Senior forward Winnie Adrien (Blair Academy [N.J./Selden), a three-time first-team all-region pick who missed the season's first 10 games with an injury, has tallied five goals in her seven games. With 35 career goals, she and Scheffer are tied for second on the program's all-time list.
Senior midfielder Emily Mogk (Bozeman/Bozeman, Mont.) and sophomore midfielder Megan Trager (Sharon/Sharon, Mass.) have combined for 13 assists. Mogk's eight lead the conference; Trager -- who's scored a pair of goals to go along with her five assists -- is tied for third in the Empire 8 with Koppel (Palladino is second). Junior midfielder Kelley Hand (Valley Centra/Walkill) has collected nine points on three goals and three assists.
Anchoring the defense is junior Andrea Janda (Sterling/West Boylston, Mass.), a two-time Empire 8 Defensive Player of the Week (no other non-goalkeeper has ever win the award once). Senior Liz Masucci (New Providence/New Providence, N.J.), sophomore Andi Roach (Central Bucks East/Doylestown, Pa.) and freshman Caroline Jastremski (Notre Dame Academy/Staten Island), who has scored eight points, round out the starters for a defense that has held opponents to less than four shots on goal per game.
Juniors Alyssa Sotomayor (East Brunswick/East Brunswick, N.J.) and Jessica Platt (Monument Mountain/New Marlborough, Mass.) have split time in goal and own the conference's two lowest goals-against averages. Sotomayor is 10-3-0 with a 0.79 goals-against and 36 saves. Platt is 2-1-1 with a 1.13 goals-against and 17 saves.
During the regular season Ithaca posted road shutouts at Nazareth (1-0) and St. John Fisher (2-0) and beat visiting Stevens 6-0. The Bombers have made 19 trips to the NCAA playoffs -- no school has made more -- reaching the semifinals five times and winning a pair of national titles. Ithaca advanced to the national quarterfinals in each of the past two seasons.