DALLAS, PA – The second-seeded Wilkes University women's soccer team travelled to No. 1 seed Misericordia University for the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom (MAC Freedom) championship game Saturday evening, falling by a 2-1 final to the No. 9 team in the country at Mangelsdorf Field.

The game marked the second-straight season the two teams met in the title game and was the fifth championship game appearance for the Colonels. Jessica Egan (West Long Branch, NJ/Shore Regional) was able to give Wilkes late life as the junior earned a foul in the box at the 79:36 mark and converted the penalty kick with a well-placed and paced shot to the bottom-right corner to pull the Colonels back into the game with 10 minutes remaining.

Wilkes is now 9-7-2 overall following the loss while Misericordia improved to 15-2-1 and captured its third consecutive conference championship.

The Cougars generated the first shot of the contest in the ninth minute and then Kaylee Sturans hit the crossbar in the 11^th minute as Misericordia narrowly missed out on an early lead.

Samantha Cecere (Batavia, NY/Batavia) came up large moments later when Kendall Pearage was in alone but the Wilkes goalkeeper came out of her goal to cut down the angle and made a save at the top of the box in the 12^th minute. Jeanna Orfanos found herself unmarked at the six-yard box in the 18^th minute but her header sailed high of frame as the game remained scoreless.

Wilkes registered its first shot in the 24^th minute when Emily Bidelspach (Myerstown, PA/ELCO) took a right-footed effort from outside the top of the box that was gathered by the Misericordia keeper wide of goal.

Cecere made a terrific diving save to keep an Orfanos shot from hitting the back of the net in the top-right corner of goal in the 33^rd minute but Misericordia was able to break the tie moments later. On the ensuing corner kick opportunity it was Sturans that fired a shot from 25-yards out that was perfectly placed in the top-right of goal to give the Cougars the 1-0 lead at the 32:59 mark.

Neither side generated a shot over the remainder of first 45-minutes as the game went into halftime with the home team in front by a goal.

The Colonels earned their first corner kick of the contest in the 51^st minute and nearly tied the game but Megan Lercara's (Plains, PA/James M. Coughlin) header off a nicely played ball from Egan was saved by Alexis Benedetto. On the other end Evelyn Logie played a dangerous ball into the middle of the Wilkes box where Orfanos was able to adjust and get a head to the ball, lofting it into the back of the net as the Cougars took a 2-0 lead at the 52:35 mark.

Cecere made a stop on a shot through traffic in the 60^th minute and five minutes later Wilkes would earn its second corner which resulted in an Egan left-footed shot sailing high.

Egan's 80^th-minute goal was her second penalty shot conversion of the season and her sixth goal overall.

Moments later Benedetto made a save on an Aislinn Speranza (Poughkeepsie, NY/Spackenkill) attempt from in close to keep the one-goal lead for Misericordia at the 81:02 mark. Delfina Bracchi's (Central Islip, NY/Central Islip) shot from the top of the box was then saved in the 86^th minute as the Colonels continued to pressure the Cougars goal in the closing stages. Speranza had a shot go wide in the 89^th minute and Nicolette Towlen's (Ewing, NJ/Ewing) last ditch effort was block inside the top-right of the 18-yard box as Misericordia hung on as time expired for its sixth conference title.

Cecere and Benedetto each made three saves. Misericordia held a 15-8 lead in shots but only 5-4 edge in shots on goal while Wilkes led 2-1 on corner kick opportunities.

Wilkes now awaits to see if its season continues with a bid into the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament.