Lancaster Inferno Clinches Spot in USL W League Playoffs

After winning two matches on the road, Inferno earns the wild card spot in the East Conference playoffs

This season has been a real nail biter with Lancaster Inferno’s First Team starting out with a 1-0 loss, followed by an 8-game winning streak that positioned the team at the top of the Mid-Atlantic Division in the USL W League. That moment on top was much too brief for the club, as only days after reaching the spot, they found themselves with a 1-1 draw against Christo’s FC.

The draw put the team in a point tie with Eagle FC, but since Eagle is the team that beat Inferno in the ONLY match between the two teams this season, Eagle gained the position at the top of the Division.

With a mere two games left in the regular season, Inferno’s only hope to qualify for playoffs was to have the second-highest number of points in the three divisions that make up the East Conference: Mid-Atlantic, Metropolitan, and South Atlantic. It was another tight race for the wild-card spot, with Inferno on the road for the last two regular-season matches.

The first game was played on Friday, June 28th at Richmond Ivy with Inferno coming out on top with a final score of 4-2. The last match of the regular season was at Charlottesville Blues home field in  Charlottesville, VA on Sunday, June 30th.

Read Friday’s Match Recap: HERE.

Encouraged by Friday’s success at Richmond, Inferno took full advantage of possession of the ball at kickoff on Sunday’s match. Within seconds, the team methodically moved the ball up the field to #27 Annabelle Wunderlich (Shepherd’s University), who passed the ball to #16 Kayla Keefer (Ole Miss) for the first goal of the match.

Charlottesville tried to regroup but Lancaster wasn’t going to allow it and Keefer scored her second goal of the match at approximately the 5 minute mark. Play continued with a few shots on goal from each team that were blocked by the keepers.

At the 30 minute mark, #12 Taylor Mentzer (University of North Carolina) was in the perfect position to grab a rebound from the Charlottesville keeper and found the back of the net, setting the score at 3-0 where it remained until the final whistle blew.

Carly Keene was named Lusk & Associates Sotheby’s International Realty Player of the Match.

Stay tuned for more information about the USL W League East Conference playoff schedule.