ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Holy Cross women's soccer team will take on Army this Friday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. in the semifinals of the Patriot League Tournament. The Crusaders earned the two-seed at the end of the regular season and a bye to the semifinal round. Army, the three-seed, had to play in the quarterfinals and beat Colgate to advance to play Holy Cross.

This will be the second matchup of the season between the Crusaders and Black Knights. In the first meeting in Worcester, the two sides tied, 1-1, on Holy Cross' Senior Day. Cassie Cheeseman scored her first collegiate goal in the 36^th minute of the contest to give the Crusaders the lead at the half. The Black Knight's Sydney Cassalia attempted to punch away a Holy Cross corner kick, but was only able to get a piece of it. Cheeseman was waiting in just the right spot to send it right back at Cassalia for the opening strike.

The Black Knights would equalize early in the second half thanks to an Alyssa Carfagno goal in the 51^st minute of play. Neither side was able to score again and it would go down as the Crusaders' first conference tie of the season. Sophia Lettieri made five saves in the game for the Crusaders. Holy Cross outshot Army, 14-11, 7-6 on goal, and earned more corners, also 7-6.

Including this season's game, the Crusaders are 3-0-3 against the Black Knights in the previous six contests. This will be the first game played at a neutral site during that time as well as the first ever postseason meeting between Holy Cross and Army.

Holy Cross (5-3-8, 3-1-5 PL):

• Kelly Crowley has paced the Crusaders this season with three goals and three assists for nine points. She has two game-winning goals that came against Navy and Boston University. She recorded an assist on the game-tying goal at Loyola in Holy Cross' 1-1 tie.
• Samantha Peters, Mariah Brown, and Katie Quinn are tied for second on the team with five points each. Peters scored the game-tying goal at Loyola and is tied with Crowley for the team-lead with three assists. Brown scored the team's first goal of the year in a 1-0 win at Bryant. Quinn, a freshman, has come on strong late in the year recording all five of her points over the final two games. She scored her first collegiate goal in a 1-1 tie with Lafayette and then scored and assisted on another in Holy Cross' regular season finale, a 3-0 win over Bucknell.
• In goal for the Crusaders, Sophia Lettieri has posted a .81 goals against average and a .818 save percentage, both career-highs, as are her six shutouts on the year.

History in the making:

• The Crusaders' 14 conference points are the most ever in program history.
• This is Holy Cross' first postseason appearance in 19 years, since 2000, when it won the Patriot League Championship.
• All three of the Crusaders' conference wins this season were the first over each respective opponent in at least 15 years. They took down Bucknell for the first time since 2004 (15 years), Navy for the first time since 2000 (19 years), and it was the first victory over Boston University since 1995 (24 years).

Army (8-6-4, 4-3-2 PL):

• Carfagno leads the Black Knights with six goals and three assists for 15 points. She scored one of the team's four goals in its quarterfinal win over Colgate.
• Lauren Drysdale is second on the team with 11 points and leads the squad with five assists.
• Cassalia has posted a .84 goals against average, a .792 save percentage, and three shutouts in goal for Army.

Postseason Honors:

• Holy Cross saw five players and head coach Casey Brown honored in the Patriot League's postseason awards. Crowley was named to the All-Patriot League first team, Carly Flahive and Lettieri to the second team, and Bridgette Dwyer and Peters to the third team. Coach Brown was named the Patriot League Coach of the Year for the first time in her four-year career with the Crusaders.
• All of Holy Cross' selections were first-time honorees except for Flahive who was also on the second team last season.
• For Army, Cassalia was named to the first team, Carfagno and Emily Torres to the second team, and Lauren Drysdale to the third team. Cassalia was also named the Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year.
• Three of the four Black Knights are first-time selections with Cassalia making her third appearance on the all-league teams.