Women's Soccer | 11/8/2008 5:06:23 PM

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ITHACA, NY - The RIT women's soccer team (9-7-2) seeded third in the 2008 Empire 8 Championship Tournament, fell to #2 Nazareth (12-6-1) by a score of 3-1 on Saturday afternoon at Carp Wood Field on the campus of Ithaca College.

Nazareth jumped out quick, scoring twice in the first 17:53 and out-shooting RIT 8-1 in the first half of play.  The Tigers rebounded and played a much better second half, out-shooting the Golden Flyers 10-7.

Kelly Finn scored both first half goals for Nazareth, her 11th and 12th tallies of the season.  Rachel Cushman, who assisted on Finn's second goal, extended Nazareth's lead to 3-0 in the 66th minute, taking a cross from Maegan Rivera and ripping a shot home from 12-yards out.

Senior forward Emily Traversi (Acton, MA/Acton-Boxborough) (Acton, MA/Acton-Boxborough) scored RIT's lone goal, her team-leading 11th of the season, just 13 seconds after Cushman gave Nazareth the 3-0 lead.  #Erica Main (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango)# (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) fired a shot in the rush that was stopped by Nazareth keeper Hillary Simon, but the rebound came out to Traversi who buried the shot for her 22nd career tally and 58th career point. 

Traversi is now third all-time at RIT in both goals and points.

Overall, Nazareth out-shot RIT 15-11 and led in the battle of corner kicks, 5-2.

Senior goalkeeper Ashley Conti (Canfield, OH/Canfield) (Canfield, OH/Canfield) took the loss in net for RIT, allowing two goals in the first 28 minutes, stopping five shots.  Freshman Ashley Valenti (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) played the final 61:40, stopping four shots and allowing one goal. 

The same two teams met just 10 days ago at RIT, with Nazareth earning a 2-0 win. Nazareth now leads the all-time series between the two schools, 19-8-5.

Hillary Simon made six saves for Nazareth, who advance to play #1 Ithaca in the conference championship contest on Sunday at 11 a.m.

RIT will now await a possible ECAC Upstate Tournament bid.