No. 2 Pioneers edged by No. 3 Rio Grande (Ohio) in RSC Championship semifinals

PITTSBURGH -- No. 3 seed University of Rio Grande (Ohio) got an early goal and held on for a 1-0 win over No. 2 seed Point Park (Pa.) University in the River States Conference Women's Soccer Championships semifinals on Wednesday afternoon from Highmark Stadium.

Rio Grande (8-5-4, 6-1-3 RSC) moves on to the RSC Championship final on Nov. 11 at No. 1 IU Kokomo. Point Park (11-5-4, 7-1-2 RSC) ended its season with another run to the conference semifinals and coming within one win of tying a school record for victories in a season. 

Point Park dominated the game with a 15-2 advantage in shots. The only shot on goal that the RedStorm got resulted in the goal. 

Rio Grande leading scorer Amora Albano made a play on the left side of the field to cause a turnover deep in the Pioneers' end. The ball went to Julia Doller, who got it back to Albando streaking down the left side of the box. She slid it past Point Park keeper Maggie Pappas for what turned out to be the game's only goal at tHe 14:32 mark. 

What ensued was a litany of near misses for the Pioneers. It was not Point Park's day as the ball would simply not find the goal line, despite coming within inches on multiple occassions. 

Point Park had nine shots in the first half with Rio Grande having just the one. Point Park had four corner kicks in each half -- compared to zero for the RedStorm on the day -- but could not convert.

The Pioneers looked like they had an incredible goal on Mireya Rojas' corner attempt midway through the first half. Although the ball ended up curving into the net off an excellent ball from Rojas, the linesman ruled that the ball had gone out of bounds on the way, came back in bounds and then curved again into the goal. 

Before the half was through, another near miss was Rojas' flick from the left side, which was saved into the crossbar by Rio Grande keeper Morgan Nutter. She had a big part in the result with nine saves in front of a RedStorm defense that had tightened up with the goal advantage. 

Point Park got another six shots after halftime, but Nutter was there with four more saves. The Pioneers came within an eyelash of tying the game, but their best chance of the half hit the left post after Lorena Montanes and Holly Pascoe combined to get it on frame. That came in the 68th minute.

Rio Grande's only other shot of the game hit a post. Holding on to the 1-0 lead, Jitske de Muijnk got free for the RedStorm, but she struck the left post in the 53rd minute as the game remained there. 

Point Park reached the RSC semifinals for the third year in a row. The Pioneers' 11 victories -- including 10 in the regular season and a playoff quarterfinal win over Midway (Ky.) -- came within a game of matching the 2015 team for mosts wins for the program in a single season. 

The Pioneers have won 21 games since the start of the 2022 season when head coach Kelly Raddar took over the program. That's the most wins in back to back seasons for the program in seven years. Point Park won 12 games in 2015 then 10 in 2016.