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ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- Nazareth's women's soccer team will be the second seed for this weekend's Empire 8 Conference Tournament hosted by Ithaca. The Golden Flyers (10-6-1 overall) will play third-seeded St. John Fisher (6-9-2 overall) in a semifinal matchup Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
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Top-seeded Ithaca (12-4-1 overall) played fourth-seeded Stevens (6-11 overall) in the other semifinal at 11:30 a.m. The winners meet Sunday for the conference title and an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament at 12 p.m.
"This is a good opportunity for some of our younger players to step up," said Nazareth Coach Gail Mann. "We'll just try to play hard and see what happens."
The Golden Flyers will be seeking their ninth NCAA berth and are led by junior forward
Erica Conte, who leads the team with 18 points on seven goals and four assists. A trio of freshmen --
Chelsea Kuss,
Christine Belding and
Sarah Eichelberger -- have each scored three times.
Junior goalie
Hillary Simon, the E8 Defensive Player of the Week four times this season, brings a 1.11 goals-against average and four shutouts into this weekend's action. Nazareth will be without starting defender
Deborah Towle, a sophomore, who suffered a knee injury in Nazareth's Oct. 27 game against Geneseo.
Nazareth defeated Fisher, 3-0, in a regular-season meeting Sept. 23 as Eichelberger scored two goals. Nazareth has a 17-game winning streak against Fisher that started in 1994.