Box Score

ORANGEBURG, SC—Freshman Carly Berdan scored her first college goal in the 36th minute and the Highlanders did the rest of the job on defense, notching their fourth shutout of the season in NJIT's 1-0 women's soccer win at South Carolina State's Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Saturday afternoon.
 
The victory lifted NJIT to a 6-9 season record, one win shy of the program's top total since beginning Division I competition in 2006. The Highlanders have four games remaining, three at home, in their bid to surpass the 2009 team's 7-9-2 record.
 
Saturday's loss for South Carolina State was its fourth straight, dropping the Lady Bulldogs' season record to 6-10-1. All four losses in the skid came in a grueling span of six days. SC State played at NJIT last Sunday and lost, 3-1. On Tuesday, the Lady Bulldogs a 1-0 loss at Delaware State and then fell at Howard, 1-0, on Thursday. Finally back home, the SC State lost again to the Highlanders, who had not played since beating South Carolina State last weekend.
 
NJIT's Berdan, who scored 17 goals in 2012 as a senior at Passaic Valley High School, broke the seal at the collegiate level in her 15th game and with her 15th shot. She put the ball away on Saturday after finding herself open in front after a pass from senior Amanda Redden, who got her first 2013 assist.
 
On the defensive side, NJIT allowed the Lady Bulldogs seven total shots, three of which were on goal and turned into saves by goalkeeper Samantha Bersett, who has played every second in goal for the Highlanders this year.
 
Bersett, who had four shutouts as a freshman, matched that total with Saturday's clean sheet in South Carolina. She and the Highlanders have allowed just 3 goals total in posting a 3-1 record in their last 4 games. That is a recovery from a late September rough patch, with 11 goals allowed in one 3-game stretch.
 
The Highlanders took four shots in Saturday's game and put three on frame, including the Berdan goal. South Carolina State keeper Haley Austin finished with 2 saves. The corner kicks favored the home team, 6-4.
 
The NJIT's next game is Tuesday, bringing Penn, one of the top teams on the Highlanders' schedule, to Newark for a 7 pm game on Lubetkin Field at Mal Simon Stadium.
 
Penn is 9-1-3 on the year after stopping Dartmouth on Saturday afternoon, 1-0. It was Penn's fifth straight win, all by shutout. The only loss for this season for the Quakers was 2-1 at Harvard on September 27. They have nine wins by shutout and have yielded one goal once and two goals twice (in the loss at Harvard and in a 2-2 tie at Old Dominion).
 
Penn, which will play in Newark for the first time, won both games in the all-time series, shutting out the Highlanders in Philadelphia in both 2011 and 2012.
 
Tuesday's game between NJIT and Penn is "Breast Cancer Awareness Night".