Lakewood, N.J.- The No. 2 seed Georgian Court University softball squad completed a tidy 2-1 victory over No. 7 Philadelphia University Friday morning in the opening round of the 2014 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship Tournament.

GCU (28-20) now advances to the the second round of the winner's bracket, returning to the diamond at 4:00 p.m. vs. the winner of No. 3 Post Universtiy and No.6 Dominican College. The Lady Rams (25-15) will now have to work its way through the loser's bracket, starting at 2:00 p.m. with the loser of the Post/Dominican contest.

Philadelphia broke a scoreless tie in the top of the second with its lone run of the contest. DP Renee Kakareka (So.-Schaumburg, Ill.) led off the frame with a single through the right side before being promptly sacrificed to second by CF Samantha Riabko (Sr.-Haddon Township, N.J.). After a ground out to second base moved Kakareka to third, 2B Meaghan Lewis (Sr.-Binghamton, N.Y.) brought her in with a single up the middle.  

The Lions answered in the bottom of the frame after LF Taylor Boltersdorf, CF Dara Schroeder, and RF Alyssa Paradiso led off the home third with bunt singles, followed by a run-inducing ground out to shortstop from 3B Taylor McDonough. GCU broke the 1-1 stalemate in the bottom of the fourth frame. 2B Justine Mattia led off the inning with a grounds-rule double to third base. Boltersdorf laced a single to right-center to advance Mattia to third. Schroeder plated the game-winning tally with a sacrifice fly to center.

Abby Merryman improved to 10-6 in the circle for Georgian Court, permitting one run (1 ER) on nine hits while striking out three in the complete game. Samantha Abromavage (Jr.-Lake Hopatcong, N.J.) suffered the defeat for Philadelphia, yielding two runs (2 ER) on 10 hits in 6.0 innings pitched (1 K).

Boltersdorf enjoyed a perfect 3-for-3 showing at the dish while Matta (2-for-3) and Schroeder (2-for-3) provided multi-hit efforts.