BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – In a premiere matchup of two of the top teams in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, the Bloomsburg University women's soccer team earned a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Mercyhurst University on Thursday afternoon. The Huskies open the season 1-0 while the Lakers begin the year 0-1.
 
As the minutes waned on the clock, the two teams looked headed for the first tie in regulation of the new year, but the Huskies front line continued to put pressure on the Lakers. After a Husky throw-in toward the Mercyhurst goal, junior Lauren Bull (Bloomsburg, Pa./Central Columbia) battled a Laker defender for the ball and flicked it in front of the net just before the end line. Graduate student Nicole Varano (Mt. Carmel, Pa./Mt. Carmel) caught the Lakers' goalie off of her line and was positioned perfectly to finish the pass into the back corner in the 84^th minute to give the Huskies a 1-0 lead.
 
The Lakers tried for the equalizer three minutes later, but sophomore Riley Spingler (Langhorne, Pa./Neshaminy) was there to make the stop and preserve her first clean sheet of the season.
 
Spingler finished the game with 10 saves in her first start as a Husky, while Varano led the team with four shots. Bull finished with three, two on target, while Brooke Foster (Cherry Hill, N.J./Camden Catholic) and Ellie Rowe (Hetlerville, Pa./Central Columbia) each had one.
 
Mercyhurst's' netminder, Maddie Elbro, made three saves on the four shots she faced. The Huskies finished with nine total shots while the Lakers had 11, 10 on target.
 
The first half was a tight battle between two evenly matched teams. Each squad finished with four shots. The Lakers put three shots on target while the Huskies had two. Mercyhurst out-shot Bloomsburg 7-5 in the second half, and Spingler made seven for her 10 saves in the final 45 minutes.
 
The Huskies' 1-0 win today marks the fifth-straight season Bloomsburg opened the season with a victory, and it's the fourth time that win came in the form of a shutout.
 
Bloomsburg looks to make it two in a row at home as the Huskies host Goldey-Beacom on Sunday, August 28. Game time is set for 1:00 p.m. at Steph Pettit Stadium.