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BLOOMSBURG, Pa. - The Bloomsburg University women's soccer team saw its magical 2018 season come to an end on Sunday afternoon as it dropped a 3-1 decision to the University of Bridgeport in the NCAA Elite Eight at Steph Pettit Stadium. The Huskies, who won the Atlantic Regional title on Friday evening, closed out the year with a 17-3-3 overall record while the Purple Knights improved to 18-4-1 on the season.

After a quick flurry by the Huskies at the outset of the match, Bridgeport maintained control for much of the first half and was rewarded when Amanda Ebbesson notched her second goal of the season with 14:09 remaining in the opening 45 minutes to give the Purple Knights a 1-0 advantage. Ebbesson received a pass up the right wing from Nara DaCosta and then chipped a shot over redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Jenna Hawkins (Fleetwood, Pa./Fleetwood) who came out to challenge the pass. The goal was the only marker of the first half as the Purple Knights outshot the Huskies, 7-3, and had four corner kicks to Bloomsburg's none. All three of the Huskies' first-half shot attempts came in the opening seven minutes.

Just under seven minutes into the second half, Bridgeport extended the lead to 2-0 when Maegen Doyle beat Hawkins for her 27th goal of the season after receiving a long outlet pass from Rebekka Skaasheim.

The never-say-die Huskies cut the lead to 2-1 in the 83rd minute when freshman Nicole Varano (Paxinos, Pa./Mt. Carmel) notched the second goal of her rookie campaign when she headed a corner kick from sophomore Lauren Hoelke (Blackwood, N.J./Highland Regional) past Bridgeport senior goalkeeper Jennifer Wendelius. The assist was Hoelke's 12th helper of the season which tied her with four other former Huskies for the all-time school record for most assists in a season. The sophomore also finished the season as the team's leading scorer with three goals and 12 assists for 18 points.

Bloomsburg kept the pressure on and narrowly missed knotting the match at 2-2 as the Huskies received three successive corner kick opportunities with one resulting in a save by Wendelius on senior Erin Bielski (York, Pa./Century (Md.)) and another that ended with a shot just sailing high off the foot of sophomore Mackenzie Gebhardt (Pennsburg, Pa./Upper Perkiomen). The comeback bid ended, however, after a foul inside the Bloomsburg box with 2:35 left in regulation resulted in a penalty kick goal from Karoline Vieira as she beat Hawkins to build the lead back up to two.

Shots were even in the second half at eight apiece with Bridgeport maintaining a 15-11 edge in that department for the match. Meanwhile, the Huskies had five corner kick chances in the second half as compared to Bridgeport's one with that category ending in a 5-5 stalemate for the match.

Hawkins stopped six shots as she ended the season with a 16-3-3 record on the season. She finished the year with a school-record 13 shutouts on the year. Wendelius moved to 18-4-1 on the season.

The Huskies, picked to finish eighth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) according to the preseason coaches poll, won four of their first six matches before rattling off a 16-match unbeaten streak (13-0-3) prior to Sunday's NCAA quarterfinal loss. Bloomsburg won the PSAC Championship with a 2-1 overtime victory over East Stroudsburg on November 4 - the program's fourth conference title but first since 2002. The Huskies were then awarded the top seed in the Atlantic Region - the program's first trip to the NCAA tournament since 2010 and eighth overall - and went on to win the regional title with a 2-1 win over West Virginia Wesleyan on November 16 which sent them to the NCAA quarterfinal round for the third time in school history and first since 2000. Bloomsburg's 17 victories were one shy of the school record of 18 set during the 1996 season.

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