GENESEO, NY – The Nazareth women's soccer team came up short of its bid for a fourth-straight Empire 8 Championship on Saturday, falling 1-0 to the second-seeded Geneseo Knights. Nazareth was the #4 seed in the tournament.  
 
Haley Dennison and Alice O'Connor were honored with the Empire 8 Torchbearer Award. The Empire 8 Torchbearer is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average (GPA) participating in the championship game for each E8 sport. To be eligible for the Empire 8 Torchbearer Award, a student-athlete must be a junior, or senior and in at least their second season of competition with their current team.

Taylor Ashe, Annika Monfort, and Grace Palczewski were named to the all-tournament team.  
 
With the loss, Nazareth finishes the season 11-6-3, while Geneseo earns the automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Women's Soccer Championship with a 13-4-3 record.
 
During the two squads regular season matchup, Geneseo came away victorious with a 2-0 margin.
 
Just 10 minutes into the game, the Knights were awarded a penalty kick following a hand ball in the box. Geneseo's Juliette Frischmann, however, hit the crossbar and the scored remained 0-0.
 
The half was relatively even with Geneseo holding a 6-3 edge in shots. For the game, the Knights held a slight 11-8 edge and 5-1 advantage in corner kicks.
 
The game-winning goal came in the 50^th minute off a corner kick,that fell to the ground and to the foot of Riley Griffin from 8-yards out. 
 
Nazareth ramped up the pressure but was unable to break through with five shots in the second half.
 
Monfort made five saves in the loss.  Monfort ends her illustrious career as the all-time leader in shutouts with 34. She went 37-22-19 between the pipes for the Golden Flyers.
 
Other seniors include Palczewski, McKenna Miller, Haley Glassman, and Margaret Partlow.