Women's Soccer | 11/3/2010 1:13:30 PM

ROCHESTER, NY – The fourth-seeded RIT women's soccer team (9-5-3, 3-3-2 E8) will play top-seed Nazareth (10-6-2, 7-0-1 E8) in the first of two Empire 8 semifinal contests on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Golden Flyer Stadium. It is RIT's fourth appearance in the Empire 8 Tournament.

Third-seeded Stevens (14-3-1, 5-3-0 E8) will play second-seed Ithaca (12-3-1, 7-0-1 E8, No. 19 nationally) in the second semifinal on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Saturday's winners will meet in the championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m.

RIT will look to earn its 10th victory of the season on Saturday under first-year head coach Liz Masterson. Freshman Alexa Martinez (Holmdel, NJ/Holmdel) leads the squad in scoring with 12 points on five goals and two assists. Sophomore Chelsea Shoemaker (Rochester, NY/Aquinas) has a team-best five assists to along with two goals for nine points. In goal, Ashley Valenti (Honeoye Falls, NY/Honeoye Falls-Lima) has an 8-5-3 record with a 0.86 goals against average, and .843 save percentage. She also has six solo shutouts.

The Tigers will look to advance to their first Empire 8 Championship game.

Nazareth enters the weekend on a 7-2-2 roll over its last 11 contests. Sarah Eichelberger leads the way offensively, with 14 points on six goals and two assists. Erica Conte is right behind with 12 points and four goals and four assists. In goal, Hilary Simon has allowed just 11 goals in 17 games, and has a 10-5-2 mark, with a 0.63 goals against average, and .896 save percentage. She also has eight shutouts.

Nazareth has out-scored its opponents, 33-17 this season.

Nazareth leads the all-time series between the two schools, 20-8-2. On Oct. 20, Nazareth defeated RIT, 3-0 at RIT Field behind goals from Meagan Rivera, Kelly Kuhn, and Erica Conte.

Live stats and streaming video will be available for all three games this weekend.