ALBANY, N.Y. – The Bloomsburg University women's soccer team saw a second consecutive remarkable season come to an end in the NCAA Division II Elite Eight as the Huskies dropped a 2-1 decision to the College of Saint Rose on Sunday afternoon at the Afrim's Sports Park in suburban Albany. Bloomsburg concludes the 2019 season with an 18-3-1 overall record while the Golden Knights improved to 21-2-1 overall and advance to next weekend's Final Four in Pittsburgh.
 
After falling behind 2-0 in the opening 45 minutes, junior Lauren Hoelke (Blackwood, N.J./Highland Regional) gave the Huskies life after Bloomsburg was awarded a penalty kick when a Saint Rose defender was called for a hand ball in the box. Hoelke fired the shot past Golden Knight goalkeeper Marika Laurendeau with 22:51 left in regulation to cut the deficit in half. It was Hoelke's 13th goal of the season.
 
Hoelke's 13 goals are the most by a Bloomsburg player in a single season since Katie Walczuk scored 13 during the 2010 season. Meanwhile, Hoelke finishes the campaign with 36 points which are tied for eighth-most in a single season in program history and are the most since Alea Balthaser (45) and Renee Williams (37) during the 2001 campaign.
 
Unfortunately for the Huskies, the damage was done in the first half and Bloomsburg ran out of time to come up with the equalizer. Hoelke narrowly missed notching her second goal of the contest when she fired a shot from well outside the box that just snuck over the crossbar in the 83rd minute.
 
Saint Rose jumped in front 1-0 in the ninth minute when Olivia Boucher finished a beautiful outlet pass from Nina Predanic as she beat redshirt junior goalkeeper Jenna Hawkins (Fleetwood, Pa./Fleetwood) who had come out to challenge the attempt. Then, with just under seven seconds left in the opening half, Morgan Burchhardt took a free kick from about 35 yards out and sniped the shot past a diving Hawkins to extend the Golden Knights' lead to 2-0.
 
To make matters worse, Hawkins was injured on the play and was removed from the contest as freshman Riley Spingler (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy), who had seen action in only two contests during the regular season, was summoned from the Bloomsburg bench. But, the freshman goalkeeper was unfazed and was credited with the Huskies' only save of the match when she stopped Predanic in the 80th minute.
 
Just moments prior to Burchhardt's goal, junior Natalie Holmes (Laurel, Md./Archbishop Spalding) nearly tied the contest at 1-1 but her free kick rang off the crossbar and the Huskies could not corral the rebound for another attempt.
 
Bloomsburg's first shot attempt of the match did not come until the 26th minute when junior Mackenzie Gebhardt (Pennsburg, Pa./Upper Perkiomen) whistled a shot over the goal. Saint Rose outshot the Huskies, 10-4, in the opening half. The Huskies returned the favor in the second half as they outshot the Golden Knights by an 11-7 count. For the match, Saint Rose held a slim 17-15 edge in shot attempts with both teams collecting three corner-kick opportunities. Both teams had trouble getting shots on goal as they each had three during the course of the contest.
 
Hawkins concludes the season with an 18-3-1 overall record as she allowed both goals without recording a save. She did, however, break the single-season school record for lowest goals against average at 0.47 – surpassing the previous record of 0.52 set by Amy Linn in 1995 and then equaled by Tracy Wirth in 1998. Her 12 shutouts this season were one shy of her record of 13 established last season.
 
Spingler, meanwhile, stopped one shot and did not allow a goal in more than 114 minutes during her initial collegiate season.
 
The Huskies won its second consecutive Atlantic Regional title on Friday afternoon with a 2-1 victory over West Chester. Bloomsburg's 18 wins tied the program record for most victories in a season which was originally established in 1996 when the Huskies went 18-3-1 under Hall of Fame coach Chuck Laudermilch. Meanwhile, the 35 wins over the last two seasons established a new program record.
 
Due to heavy snow that fell in the area earlier in the week, the match was played inside a dome at the Afrim's Sports Complex in Colonie, New York.