WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The No. 4 Embry-Riddle women's soccer team traveled to West Palm Beach, Fla. for The Sun Conference Regular Season Championship game at No. 2 Northwood University on Wednesday, falling to the Seahawks, 2-0. The Sun Conference rivals each won their respective divisions to get the chance to play in the regular season championship game with the winner receiving the league's first automatic bid to the 2013 NAIA National Tournament.
 
The first half of the game featured very even play from the two top-five teams. At the 16 minute mark the Eagles recorded the first shot of the game. Katherine Ebbs took a corner kick from the left side and although a Northwood defender cleared the ball out of the box the rebound found Martine Olsen who headed the ball just left of the goal. The Eagles regained possession quickly and kept the Seahawks pinned to their side of the pitch before Dana Robins recorded the first shot on frame of the match. In the 18th minute, Valerie Obita dribbled the ball down the left side and crossed the ball to the middle to Robins, who then took two touches before firing a shot at Matilda Ojaniemi, however the Northwood goalie was there for the first save of the game.
 
The Seahawks best opportunity in the first half came in the 37th minute when a Northwood midfielder played Amy Vaughan in the center of the pitch just outside the Eagles' box. Vaughan sent a rocket shot just inches high of the goal as the score remained 0-0.
 
The teams went into halftime matched evenly with three shots each, with the Seahawks holding a 2-1 shots on goal advantage.
 
In the second half, the Blue and Gold came out firing, recording a pair of shots, including one on goal, in the first three minutes. In the 47th minute, Robins dribbled the ball up the middle and played a ball through to Isabelle Haaranen on the left outside. Haaranen dribbled the ball back towards the middle and shot a hard ball to the low left side of the NU goal, but once again Matilda Ojaniemi was up to the task, making an impressive diving stop to keep the teams level. In the 49th minute Katherine Ebbs played Haaranen who was on the left alone outside of the penalty area again. Haaranen took a few dribbles before firing a high ball to the right corner, but the shot got away from her and sailed wide of the goal.
 
The play went back and forth with strong defensive performances by both teams for the next 15 minutes and the Eagles were able to regain control of the ball in the 65th minute when Robins played a ball to Obita. Obita dribbled around three Northwood defenders and shot the ball high to the left corner of the goal, Ojaniemi made an impressive jump to block the ball and push it over the goal and out of bounds for the save.
 
The first score of the game came in the 66th minute when the Eagles were called for a foul about 10 yards outside of their box on the left side of the field. Helen Lynskey took the free kick for Northwood and buried the ball in the upper right corner of the goal past the reach of ERAU goalie Olivia Lynch. It was Lynskey's 19^th goal of the season and put the Seahawks up 1-0 with just under 25 minutes left in the game.

The Eagles were only able to record one more shot in the game which came in the 70^th minute. Isabelle Haaranen shot from outside the box was no danger for the Seahawks' goalkeeper.

Northwood put another goal on the scoreboard with seven minutes left in the game. After a corner kick, Johanna Engberg was completely surrounded by Eagles in the box, but somehow got her foot on the ball and shot it to the lower left corner of the net between two Eagle defenders and out of the reach of Lynch giving the Seahawks a 2-0 lead, one that would stand as the final.

"My hat goes off to Northwood," Embry-Riddle Head Coach Samantha Bohon stated. "There's no doubt this game featured two of the top five teams in the country. The difference in any high level game like this is minuscule, and that showed today. Lynskey's goal on the free kick was class,  something you just can't defend. However, I still felt like we would get an equalizer. I'll take responsibility for the second goal with a few minutes left as we made a choice to push numbers forward and go man for man in the back. Today, I actually thought we were good 18-to-18, but unfortunately we know that doesn't win games. At the end of the day, they put the ball in the back of the net and we didn't. I was proud of how our group played today and thought we had long stretches where we were really strong. Northwood has shown all season they are never out of a game and all of the credit goes to them. Our team is keenly aware of the challenge we now have to move forward and recover knowing that we will have a huge game Saturday at home. I believe in this team and today doesn't change that."
 
Embry-Riddle will now return home for The Sun Conference Tournament semifinals on Saturday at 5 p.m. at ERAU Soccer Stadium. The Eagles will play the winner of the quarterfinal game between SCAD Savannah and South Carolina Beaufort.