Brookville, N.Y. – Powered by a hat-trick in the first half from senior Heidi Serna (West Covina, Calif./South Hills), the No. 2 seeded Mercy College women's soccer team won their second ECC Women's Soccer Championship with a 3-0 victory over No. 1 seeded LIU Post on Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Soccer Field.
The Mavericks (16-3) win their first ECC Championship since 2014 and have secured an automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. Mercy will be making their third NCAA Tournament appearance in the last five years and defeat LIU Post for the first time in program history. The Pioneers (15-3-1) will now await the NCAA selection show on Monday, November 6th at 6 p.m. to see if their name will be called.
Serna now has ten goals on the year and was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Adding assists were juniors Haley Noble (Torrance, Calif./Torrance) and Corinna Ferrante (Patchogue, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) along with sophomore Trista Seara (Lindenhurst, N.Y./Lindenhurst). Freshman goalkeeper Melissa Torres (La Mirada, Calif./La Mirada) made four saves to earn the shutout win.
LIU Post received a team-high two shots on goal from Erin O'Connor, while goalkeeper Hillevi Eklow made three saves to take the loss.
Mercy looked to pick up their second-ever ECC Championship and got off to a good with Serna scoring her first goal of the day in the 20th minute. The senior finished off a rebound on a shot taken by Noble, giving the Mavericks a 1-0 lead.
It remained 1-0 as the action went back-and-forth until Serna struck again in the 38th minute to make it 2-0. Ferrante played a ball to Serna and the senior fired a shot from 20 yards out over the goalkeeper's head to give Mercy an insurance goal.
The Mavericks continued to apply pressure to the Pioneers backline and Serna capitalized with her third goal of the game just 40 seconds later. The senior received a cross from inside the box from Seara and slid the ball into the goal to give Mercy a commanding 3-0 lead.
Torres made a save in the 43rd minute to keep the score 3-0 and the Mavericks headed into halftime up 3-0.
The second half saw Serna fire off another shot on goal, but Eklow came up with the save. Torres stepped up for the Mavericks and made three saves in the second half to keep LIU Post off the board, giving Mercy the ECC Championship.
Mercy held a 14-12 edge in shots and a 4-3 edge in corner kicks.
Head Coach Jonathan Feinstein and the Mavericks will now wait to hear their names called on the NCAA Selection Show on Monday, November 6th at 6 p.m.
Provided by the Mercy Sports Information Department.
