ALBANY – The College of Saint Rose scored both early and late en route to a 2-0 victory against visiting Merrimack in a Northeast-10 Conference semifinal encounter this afternoon at The Albany Academies. The Golden Knights thus afforded themselves the opportunity to defend their back-to-back league titles. Saint Rose (20-0-0) will host #19 Franklin Pierce at 1:00 pm Sunday. The Ravens advanced with a 2-1 overtime victory against visiting UMass Lowell today.

Junior midfielder Amanda Deck and sophomore midfielder Brittany Godin found the back of the net for the Golden Knights, something that the visiting Warriors (13-5-3) failed to do despite hitting the crossbar on three occasions and generating a 16-11 shot advantage. It marked just the second time this year the Golden Knights were outshot, although seven of their attempts were on target as opposed to only six for Merrimack.

Saint Rose, ranked #2 for the fifth straight week according to the most recent NSCAA/Adidas Division II Poll, reached a pair of notable single-season milestones following today's triumph. The Golden Knights tied last year's school mark of 20 victories, and also established a standard with their 16th shutout of the year. Saint Rose had previously produced 15 clean sheets in 2007.

Deck appeared to put Saint Rose in an advantageous position when she swiped the ball off a Merrimack defender with 10:39 elapsed. The 2008 All-American then dribbled in towards the top of the box before letting go of a shot from 20-yards out that whistled into the upper right-hand corner for her team-leading seventh marker of the year.

However, Merrimack responded with pressure that yielded two superlative chances off of corners for junior midfielder Ashley Alnwick. Alnwick fired a shot that ricocheted off the crossbar at the 24:30 mark, only to have a head ball play out the same way less than a minute later.

If the Warriors were left with the feeling that perhaps this was not their day, their thoughts may have been confirmed five minutes into the second period when another strike by Alnwick gravitated towards the crossbar. They did manage to produce one more clear opportunity in the 75th minute when senior midfielder Jackie Vickers got free inside the box and fired a shot that forced Saint Rose sophomore keeper Susan Cowan to make a diving save to her right.

The Golden Knights finally got some breathing room with less than five minutes remaining after Godin created space near on the right-hand side of the box. Her subsequent shot sailed inside the top post on the far side for her fifth goal of the 2009 campaign.

Cowan wound up with four saves to run her record to 12-0-0 on the year, while senior Brittany Gusfafson made five saves for Merrimack, which lost for the first time in six outings.

Saint Rose has now shutout 13 of its last 14 opponents and has allowed a mere four goals all season, none in the first half. The Golden Knights have furthermore generated 144 corner kicks opportunities, while yielding only 38.

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