Box Score
EVANS, GA – The College of Saint Rose run to a second straight national title came to a sudden and deflating halt tonight. It was nothing but a heartbreaking end as second-ranked West Florida scored on a penalty kick in the opening minute of the second overtime to upend Saint Rose (20-3-2) 2-1 in an NCAA Tournament national semifinal match this evening at Blanchard Woods Park.
“I think that you saw a superbly played soccer game tonight, and I think that both of these teams played their hearts out,” said Saint Rose head coach
Laurie Darling Gutheil. “We graduated seven unbelievable seniors last year, and we had a tremendous core of returning, talented upperclassmen, and we put together a superb recruiting class, and what these girls have done as young as we are...is just incredible. We only had four returning players that started last year on the field to start tonight's game.”
In the end, it was West Florida junior midfielder Chelsea Palmer who finished the game-winning penalty kick after Saint Rose was whistled for bringing down one of her teammates in the area. The Argonauts (23-1-0) will thus now take on UC San Diego (17-2-4) in Saturday's national championship after the Tritons advanced with a 2-1 victory against Grand Valley State, MI (20-2-3) earlier today.
West Florida appeared to put itself in control when senior midfielder Monica Malvassi chipped in a feed from Palmer inside the top left post with only 13 minutes left in regulation.
However, the Golden Knights kept their composure. They subsequently forced extra time after freshman midfielder
Michaela Phillips got to a loose ball in front of the net that was delivered from the right side off the foot of sophomore back La'Quilla Upton with just a bit more than three minutes remaining.
Earlier, Saint Rose had a goal nullified in the 33rd minute when the Golden Knights were whistled for offsides, which ultimately foreshadowed how their night would turn out.
Overall, both teams manufactured five corner kicks although West Florida generated a 25-11 shot advantage. Unfortunately, only the final one proved to matter. Junior keeper
Jessica Gerski made a season-high nine saves for Saint Rose while junior Sarah Story turned aside three threats on target for West Florida.
“I really feel that these girls could've been playing Saturday without a doubt in my mind, and the will and strength of character really was displayed with three plus minutes left, after going down with 14 minutes to play in a national semi-final, they came back and created a set piece that finished a goal, so we could go on to overtime. You want to talk about strength, character, and heart, with one senior on the pitch...now that's something. I can't be more proud of this group of girls,” said Darling Gutheil.
From a broader perspective, this marked the team's 10th NCAA Tournament appearance within an 11-year stretch. The Golden Knights had only one senior and three freshmen in tonight's starting lineup. This was also their fifth straight trip to the NCAA Tournament national semifinals. Saint Rose has compiled a 111-10-6 (.898) record during that span and has won at least 20 games in each of those campaigns.
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