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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Following the semifinal results of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship on Thursday, No. 2 Ursuline and No. 4 Davis & Elkins emerged as finalists for Saturday’s title contest.
The Arrows of Ursuline are headed to the G-MAC Championship game for the fifth consecutive season (in as many possible years) after halting a strong postseason run by No. 6 Malone, 2-1.
Davis & Elkins played the role of spoiler against No. 1 seed and tournament host Trevecca Nazarene in the late game with a 2-0 shutout.
The stage is now set for No. 2 Ursuline (12-5-1, 9-4-1 G-MAC) and No. 4 Davis & Elkins (9-9-0 overall) in Saturday’s final with an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship Midwest Regional on the line.
The championship game at the Trojan Soccer Complex will start at 1 p.m. CST. Live video streaming and stats for the game will be available for viewing.
In the early semifinal, Ursuline displayed a deadly, quick-strike offense that resulted with two goals in the opening moments of each half.
Freshman Chiara Baker first capitalized in the third minute of regulation after tapping in a pass from Taylor Dackin. Dackin, one of UC’s eight all-conference selections, also assisted on the second score, the game winner from freshman Allie Moening. Moening’s goal was just 24 seconds into the second half.
Malone was able to pull within one after a blast from midfield off the foot of quarterfinal hero Kaela Kovanda that found the foot of Kassidy Hannum. But the Pioneers’ valiant bid for the equalizer fell just short in their first postseason appearance a member of the G-MAC.
Both teams had split in the regular season, but playing any opponent for the third time throughout the course of the year, makes the outcome so difficult to predict. In either the men’s or women’s tournament, there also hasn’t been a game that has went to double overtime or into PK’s yet.
Davis & Elkins was in Trevecca Nazarene’s shoes last year at this time, running the tables as the regular-season champ, host and top seed. Under first year head coach Meghan Gill, the Senators were able to reverse their semifinal fortunes as the men’s and women’s top seeds both were taken down yesterday.
Coming in, the Senators had four players other than first team all-conference pick Katrina Giantsopoulos score all season.
But both D&E’s Tina Wulin and Brianna Rackey both found the net for their first goals of the season as the Senators executed their corner kicks with precision. With players crashing the box at all angles from curled shots from either Jessica Woodbyrne or Asheli Freed, D&E was able to keep a TNU defense that had 11 shutouts throughout the season on its heels.
Sophomore goalkeeper Lauren Hill made about five plays in the first half to stop Trojan runs down the field by either rushing the top of the box or sitting back and making difficult deflections.
The Trojans had their opportunities with Hannah Barney, Diana Corzine, Riley Engels, breaking free at different moments, but couldn’t quite get TNU on the scoreboard.
TNU and D&E had also split the regular-season series.