CARLISLE, Pa. – The third-seeded Haverford College women's soccer team was downed by second-seeded Johns Hopkins, 1-0, on Saturday afternoon in the semifinals of the Centennial Conference Tournament. A goal just 7:43 into the match off the header of Emily Maheras was the only offense the Blue Jays needed to advance to Sunday's championship match against Dickinson. The Red Devils defeated Gettysburg by a 3-0 score earlier on Saturday.
The Blue Jays' goal came on the team's second corner of the early minutes as Alex Damron found Maheras on the far post for her 13th goal of the season. Haverford had several opportunities throughout the rest of the match, but could not crack the JHU defense as goalie Caitlin Hendricks made six saves during her shutout. Haverford goalie Hannah Friedrich made nine saves on the afternoon to keep the Fords within a goal right up until the final whistle.
Right after the Blue Jays found their early tally, Leanne Ludwick had a pair of shot attempts that were saved during the 11th and 19th minutes of game action. Kendra Griesman also had a pair of strong attempts late in the opening half which was also collected by the JHU keeper.
Haverford finished the match with 11 shots in total, putting two more attempts on target during the second half. Both of those shots came with around 15 minutes to play as Griesman and Alyssa Saito were denied by Hendricks. The Fords also earned a corner during the 64th minute of play - the third of the match - but the shot from Marina Piccolo off of that set piece was knocked down and out of harm's way by the Blue Jays' defense.
Johns Hopkins was whistled for 17 fouls in the match with two other occasions during which a Haverford player went down inside of the 18 but the referee ruled that those plays were clean challenges by the defender.
With today's result, women's soccer must now wait until Monday to learn if the Fords' season will continue in the NCAA Tournament via an at-large bid. The Fords were ranked seventh in the Mid-Atlantic Region during this past Wednesday's release. The NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Selection show will be streamed live on NCAA.com this Monday at 1 p.m.