Springfield, Mass. – The Le Moyne College women's soccer team went 5-for-5 on penalty kicks to defeat American International College in a shootout, 5-4, to advance to the Northeast-10 Conference Championship semifinals after playing to a 1-1 tie through double overtime.
The Dolphins, who appeared in the NE-10 Championship for the fourth time in the program's history, advance to the NE-10 semifinals for the first time. The Dolphins will take on sixth-seeded Pace University, which defeated third-seeded Southern Connecticut State on Tuesday, on Friday at 7:00 p.m. The Dolphins defeated the Setters in the regular season meeting, 4-2, on October 4 at home.
The teams traded goals over the first four rounds of the shootout. The Dolphins got successful kicks in the span from freshman
Claire Stackel (Watertown, N.Y./Copenhagen), junior
Brielle Filtch (Marcellus, N.Y./Marcellus/Mansfield), senior
Rachel Terry (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) and junior
Kirsten Colegrove (Athens, Pa./Athens). After junior
Stephanie Liberati (Liverpool, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) gave the Dolphins a 5-4 advantage, AIC's Isabella Burns blasted her attempt high over the crossbar to give the Dolphins the shootout win.
After the Yellow Jackets outshot the Dolphins 7-2 over the opening 29 minutes, Colegrove used spectacular footwork to give Le Moyne the lead. After weaving through the AIC defense, Colgrove drilled a shot under the crossbar in the middle of the goal at the 29:51 mark for her third goal of the year.
American International had two shots around another strong strike by Colegrove, but could not even the score before halftime.
The Yellow Jackets were awarded a penalty kick in the opening minutes of the second half following a Le Moyne foul on the left side of the penalty box. Jessica Magaretta sent her attempt towards the right side of the net, but sophomore goalkeeper
Anastasija Cumika (Riga, Latvia/Riga Kengarags/West Florida) made a diving save to keep the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard.
After American International tallied eight of the next nine shots, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of a free kick to even the score at one apiece at the 74:37 mark. Miko Iida sent the free kick from 10 yards off the top left corner of the penalty box into the center of the penalty box. Following a bounce eight yards out, Johanna Nilsson fired a shot inside the right post for her second goal of the campaign.
Just 73 seconds later, the Yellow Jackets put another shot on goal, but Cumika turned the shot away.
AIC had the final shot of the second half with 6:19 remaining, but sent it wide.
Each team recorded two shots in the first overtime period, with both of Le Moyne's attempts on goal and saved by AIC goalkeeper Madison Brown.
American International registered all six of the shots in the second overtime period, the first two of which had to be saved by Cumika, but could not net the game-winner.
Cumika picked up her second tie of the season after recording five saves. Brown recorded three saves in the contest for the Yellow Jackets. American International registered a 29-7 advantage in shots, including 20-3 after halftime, while taking 10 of the game's 11 corner kicks.
