Philadelphia, Pa. - After trailing 2-1 in the second half, the Navy women's soccer (6-5-1) team rallied to beat Penn (4-4), 3-2, at Rhodes Field on Sunday afternoon. Navy has now won four of its last five games and moves over .500 for the first time since Aug. 29 (2-1-1).

Senior Carissa Youker netted her 13th career game-winning goal in the 75th minute to cap Navy's two-goal comeback.

"It was a great win," said head coach Carin Gabarra. "Penn is a very good team and we were opportunistic, we fought well and our effort and our intensity were great. This is a result we can be proud of and it is nice to get these two results this weekend and head into conference play with some momentum."

Navy was the first to get on the board when they scored their earliest goal of the season, only 9:51 in to the match. Fallon Puppolo served a corner kick across the box and Amanda Serfass headed the ball in to put Navy up, 1-0. It was Serfass' first goal of the season and the second of her career.

Penn evened the game at 1-1 in the 39th minute, when Laura Oliver found Kerry Scalora near the top of the box. Scalora turned and fired a shot to the inside left post for her first goal of the season. The game was even at 1-1 entering halftime.

Penn outshot Navy 9-4 in the first half, but the Mids held a 3-1 advantage in shots on goal.

Scalora scored her second goal of the game off a Marin McDermott shot that bounced off the cross bar. Scalora controlled the rebound and knocked it in to give Penn a 2-1 lead in the 65th minute.

Just three minutes later, Navy knotted the game at 2-2 on the strength of Kelsey Learned's second goal in as many games. Kate Herren took a free kick and served it into the box to Learned who headed the ball into the net.





Navy would regain the lead at 3-2 in the 75th minute. Navy's Katelyn George played the ball to the middle of the field to Christine Calderon, who found Britta Vivaldi streaking on the outside on a breakaway. Vivaldi took a shot and the keeper got a small piece of the ball, but Carissa Youker entered the play and got the rebound and tapped in her team-leading fifth tally of the season.

"Britta Vivaldi played huge minutes today," said Gabarra. "In addition to assisting on the game-winning goal, she also neutralized one of Penn's best players."

Penn had a number of chances in the final 10 minutes of the game off of free kicks, but Navy's defense clamped down.

Penn outshot Navy 23-8 in the game and held a 6-1 advantage in corner kicks. Navy will open Patriot League play at Colgate on Friday, Oct. 1.

Notes:

Youker's 13 career game-winning goals are tied for second all-time at Navy. Youker also now has 23 goals and 56 points in her four-year career.