MOORHEAD, Minn. – For the third time in four seasons, the Carleton College women’s soccer team (9-5-5) locked up with Concordia College in the MIAC Playoffs and just like in 2006, the score was tied 1-1 sending the contest into a shootout. This time, however, the Knights took care of business, winning on penalty kicks, 3-1. Carleton will play at Macalester College on Saturday, Nov. 7 with a bid to the NCAA tournament on the line.
“I thought we played them just as well as we did a week and a half ago,” said Carleton head coach Keren Gudeman. “It was a really fun, back-and-forth game. We have a lot of momentum and are really excited to play Macalester again."
Trailing 1-0 late in the second half, the Knights used late-game magic from Niki Tomita (Redwood City, Calif./Woodside) for the second time in four days to keep their playoff hopes alive. The sophomore forced overtime with her tying goal 88th minute. It was her ninth goal of the season and seventh over the last 10 days.
Goalkeeper Kate Trenerry (Jr./Rochester, Minn./Century) was the other story for the Knights, finishing with nine saves, in addition to three more huge stops in the shootout against the top-scoring team in the league.
Carleton got the best of Concordia during last fall’s conference tournament, winning 3-0 to secure the Knights first-ever trip to the NCAA Championships, but today they needed to contend with the unbeaten Cobbers, ranked No. 7 in the NSCAA national poll released today.
It didn’t take long for Trenerry to have an impact on the game as she came up with the first of several impressive saves in the 27th minute. Meagan Rice had gotten in on a breakaway, but the Carleton keeper was equal to the task.
Abby Habein nearly gave Concordia the lead early in the second half, but her header went off the post in the 50th minute.
About five minutes later, Trenerry made the first of three big saves. At 54:15, she cleared Susan Obermiller’s header off the line, keeping the match scoreless. Three-and a-half minutes later, Trenerry continued turned aside consecutive shots by Obermiller and Rice.
Concordia, the top scoring team in the MIAC, finally broke through in the 66th minute as Sam Johnson headed home a ball of a corner kick. It was her league-best 21st goal of the campaign and the 11th consecutive game in which she’s found the back of the opponent’s net.
The Knights brought another player forward looking for the equalizer and nearly found it in the 85th minute when Marlena Hartman-Filson’s (Fy./Evergreen, Colo./Colorado Academy) shot struck the crossbar and dropped straight down without crossing the goal line. The relentless Carleton attack was finally rewarded when Tomita fired past Cobber keeper Ali Nelson from the top of the box at 87:40.
After an unsuccessful clearance attempt by the Cobbers, junior midfielder Merritt Swain (Mendota Heights, Minn./St. Paul Academy) found the feet of Tomita with a well-played pass in transition. The Knights’ leading scorer took a touch to open up some space and slotted a 12-yard shot inside the far post.
After the two overtime periods deciding nothing, the youthful Knights—with only one active senior on the roster—looked like a veteran crew in taking care of business during the shootout.
“We’re a young team,” admitted Gudeman, “but we have a lot of sophomores that got great playoff experience last year. That helped a lot with staying calm in an intense situation.”
Carleton won the toss and elected to shoot first. Tomita began the festivities by depositing a shot in the right corner, immediately putting the pressure upon the Cobbers.
“I know that I’m one of the more experience penalty kick takers on the team, so I just wanted to be calm. If I could take the shot with confidence, then everyone else would follow,” she said. “I’d practiced yesterday exactly where I wanted to put it. I was very confident going up there, and it paid off.”
Trenerry initially came up with a stop of a shot by Concordia’s top player Sam Johnson. However, the referee called for a re-kick after declaring that the Carleton keeper moved too early. Johnson deposited her second-chance shot in what would be the last ball to get past Trenerry on this day.
Marlena Hartman-Filzen (Fy./Evergreen, Colo./Colorado Academy) gave Carleton the 2-1 lead, then Trenerry came up with yet another stellar save. In the third round, Carleton finally missed, so did Concordia’s Vanessa Kowalski, one of three Cobbers who played the last time these schools went to a shootout.
Lily VanderStaay (So./Bellingham, Wash.) deposited her shot in the back of the net to put Carleton up 3-1, and with Concordia facing elimination, Trenerry made her third stop of the shootout, sparking the on-field celebration.
“I was just trying to stay focused on the ball, read their body language, and figure out where they were going to put it,” Trenerry said. “I trusted myself and put everything into whatever decision I made.”
“Kate was amazing,” Gudeman said. “She was on fire. I don’t know how she came up with some of those stops. She picked the correct side each time and was able to stretch to get to these shots.”
Carleton is the only team not to be beaten by Concordia (16-0-2) this season, having earned a tie in both contests. Despite today’s result, which means Concordia will not play in the MIAC Playoffs final for the first time since 2003, the Cobbers stand an excellent chance of securing an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament.
.
.
