College Misericordia Alive In Playoff Chase

By DOUG PAPE [email protected]
Thursday, October 25, 2001 Page: 5B

The frightening thing is Cole Vennie didn’t score.

Vennie, College Misericordia’s best women’s soccer player, who set school
records with 19 goals and 46 points this season, failed to muster even an
assist against Marywood Wednesday in a Pennsylvania Athletic Conference
semifinal.
“Yeah, but that’s a good thing,” said Cougar coach Mark Stauffer. “We
have six girls with over 15 points this year and that’s tough to defend
against.”

While Vennie was blanketed by the Pacer defense, Erin Wiernusz and Carolyn
Muller both posted hat tricks as the Cougars cruised to a 7-1 victory.

“It was like they were trying too hard on Cole and double teaming her and
leaving people open,” Wiernusz said, “and we just filled in.”

Misericordia will now host Gwynedd-Mercy at 1 p.m. Saturday in the PAC
final. Gwynedd-Mercy upset Eastern, 3-2, in four overtimes on Wednesday. The
winner of the PAC final earns an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III
playoffs.

The Cougars, 15-1 overall, continue to improve on their school record for
wins in a season and consecutive victories with 14.

Wiernusz, a Tunkhannock native, scored Misericordia’s first goal via a
ricochet off Pacer goalkeeper Katie Lyons in the 13th minute. Wiernusz found
the left corner of the goal at the 23rd minute off an assist by Nanticoke
graduate Holly Szychowski.

“I thought it was going to be a real close game,” Wiernusz said. “I was
nervous all day, but we just played the game we’re capable of playing and we
beat them.”

Muller got in the act at the 30th minute for a right-place, right-time
goal. A shot popped out of Lyons’ hands and Muller punched a score past her.
Angela Neff connected on a direct kick a minute later as the Cougars took a


Just 12 seconds into the second half, Muller scored from point-blank range
off an assist by Wiernusz. At the 54th minute, Wiernusz scored her final goal
off an assist by Kristen Steiner. Muller scored her team’s final goal at the


Lindsay Pappas, a Meyers graduate, got Marywood (13-6-1) on the board a
minute later with an unassisted goal. The Pacers have three girls in the top
five in the PAC in scoring (Pappas, Rebecca Grubb and Amy Skrzpek), but failed
to muster a shot in the first half and were outshot for the game, 33-8.

“We haven’t faced a team this year that can stand up to our pressure and
stay composed enough to control the ball,” Stauffer said. “I told our girls,
`If you run hard with them and if you tackle hard at midfield, they’re not
going to be very dangerous against us, and our girls did a great job of
that.”

Misericordia has an early season blemish to Susquehanna and Stauffer
believes that will assure his team won’t come into Saturday’s game
overconfident.

“We know we can be beat, but we know if we play our game there’s not a
team in our conference that should beat us,” he said.

Doug Pape, a Times Leader sports writer, can be reached at 829-7227.