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‘Econ’ sisters reflect on emotional journey to youth national championship with Penn FC Lightning

When the full time whistle blew, Ashley Economopoulos limped onto the field in a line directly to her older sister Katelyn, her arms outstretched to hug her and another teammate as an on-field celebration broke out.

After the warm embrace, Ashley found her way through the crowd to her other older sister, Kristen, whose goal in the sixth minute held up as the winner in a 2-0 victory for the Penn FC Lightning that clinched the first ever U.S. Youth Soccer national championship for a team from Central Pennsylvania.

Known as the Econ sisters for short, twins Katelyn and Kristen and younger sister Ashley (a 2007 on a 2004 team) were a big part of the success the Penn FC U17 girls team had this season en route to being crowned national champions.