Official Great Midwest Women's Soccer Championship Page

MARIETTA, Ohio – Top-seeded Ohio Valley and No. 2 Ohio Dominican each won their respective semifinal contests in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship bracket on Thursday.
 
The games were conducted at Marietta College at Don Drumm Stadium after inclement weather forced changes from originally-scheduled plans to play at Ohio Valley’s home grass field
 
The first contest featured No. 2 Ohio Dominican recording a 2-0 shutout against No. 3 Walsh.  
 
Both teams fought to a scoreless first half in a defensive struggle despite Walsh outshooting ODU, 11-4. At halftime, the strong effort from Walsh forced a change in mentality for the favored Panthers.
 
“Going into the second half, we had to change how we were doing some things,” Ohio Dominican head coach Aimee Haywood said. “And we also had to refocus our minds so we were winning those individual battles. Luckily our team responded and did both of those things really well.”
 
A Walsh foul gave Ohio Dominican a penalty kick in the 46th minute, which current Great Midwest Offensive Player of the Week Becca Gordon converted for the 1-0 lead. The Panthers extended their lead to 2-0 on a well-executed corner kick from Gordon to senior Lauren Bates, who put the ball past the Walsh defense on a header.  
 
Bates, who has now scored in seven straight games, praised the pass from none other than Gordon that gave her the opportunity to put in the insurance goal.
 
“I think the pass was perfectly placed. I ran backwards a little bit on the ball, but she placed it where we had practiced multiple times,” Bates said.
 
Gordon finished the game with a goal and an assist. For Walsh, the Cavaliers concluded the season with a 15-4 record.
 
Ohio Valley fended off a resilient effort from No. 5 Ursuline in the semifinals to ultimately advance to Saturday’s championship final. The Fighting Scots had to come back from behind, a position OVU has rarely been in during its dominant season.
 
Following an opening tally by OVU in the 14th minute, Ursuline countered back with an equalizer from Taylor Dackin.  
 
Dackin then helped out with an assist on a goal by junior Haley Knox to give the Arrows a 2-1 lead and put the Fighting Scots in a tough position. This was coupled by strong play in the net by freshman goalkeeper Gina Cerny, the current Great Midwest Defensive Player of the Week. She would finish with 13 saves in the effort.
 
Great Midwest Coach of the Year (Men’s & Women’s) Luis Rincon said that the nerves of playing in the semifinals was a factor early, but that the team did a good job of overcoming those jitters.
 
“It took us a good 20 minutes to get into the game and play our game,” Rincon said. “I think we were very successful towards the last 25 minutes when we started playing. We loosened up, we lifted the nerves away,and we performed well.”
 
The Fighting Scots did gain some momentum going into the second half with a goal in the 44th minute by Paula Valbuena on an assist from freshman conference offensive player of the year Konstantina Giannou. That tied the game at 2-2
 
Ohio Valley was able to pull away for good in the 59th minute on yet another assist from Valbuena, this time to junior Laura Acosta to establish a 3-2 edge. Valbuena finished the contest with a goal and two assists.
 
Ursuline finishes the season with a record of 7-8-2 after pulling a quarterfinal-round upset against No. 4 Cedarville to get to this point.
 
The win puts OVU in the championship game for the first time against Ohio Dominican and the Fighting Scots hope to continue the successes they have had this season. Giannou said the team has to be focused coming into the matchup.
 
“We have to think all day about the game; we have to, ” Giannou said. “We have to make better mistakes than we did here. We want to make history, so we will try this.”
 
The Great Midwest Championship game will be played on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. EST in New Concord, Ohio, at Muskingum University.