Women's Soccer | 11/2/2016 6:20:00 PM
Box Score SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – The West Liberty University women's soccer team saw its first Mountain East Conference Tournament appearance end in heartbreak here Wednesday as regionally-ranked Notre Dame (Ohio) held off the upset-minded Hilltoppers in a penalty kick shootout.
The host Falcons entered the MEC semifinal as the tournament's No. 1 seed after winning the league's regular-season title and were No. 3 in the Atlantic Region after putting together a 10-match win streak.
But it was Coach Barry Christmas' West Liberty squad that jumped out to an early lead when All-MEC forward Kaelyn Oskin won a 50-50 ball in the box and rifled it into the net for a 1-0 Hilltopper lead in the 15th minute.
The WLU defense fended off several Notre Dame surges and it paid off later in the half when Thanna Oddo slid the ball across the top of the 18 to Emily Evans, who ripped a laser past Falcon goalkeeper Sam Shoemaker from 20 yards out for a 2-0 West Liberty lead at the half.
The Hilltoppers carried that lead deep into the second half before Notre Dame's Alexis Manoa fed Katarina Doncevic on a semi-breakaway and Doncevic finished to pull the hosts within a goal in the 77th minute.
West Liberty weathered several more NDC attacks to preserve the lead but Manoa came up big for the Falcons again, intercepting an attempted clearing pass in the WLU end and finding Maranda Melton for the equalizer in the 86th minute.
Neither team scored in the two overtime periods but the Hilltoppers had the best of the scoring chances. West Liberty spent almost the entire final five minutes of the second extra frame in the Notre Dame end. Shoemaker was called on to make her two best saves of the match on shots by Oskin and the Falcons also had to turn aside a WLU corner kick.
That sent the match into a penalty kick shootout. Melton made the final penalty kick of the shootout to give Notre Dame the 4-3 nod.
The Falcons had a 25-10 advantage in shots but West Liberty keeper Allie Warsaw had a strong match with 9 saves. Shoemaker finished with 4 saves for Notre Dame.
WOMEN'S SOCCER
MEC Tournament
Semifinal Round
*Notre Dame 2, West Liberty 2
(Notre Dame wins on penalty kicks, 4-3)
West Liberty 2 0 0 0 – 2
Notre Dame 0 2 0 0 – 2
First Half
Second Half
NDC: Katarina Doncevic (Alexis Manoa), 76:22
NDC: Maranda Melton (Alexis Manoa), 85:24
Overtime
No Scoring
Match Statistics
Shots: West Liberty 10, Notre Dame 25
Saves: West Liberty 9 (Allie Warsaw 9), Notre Dame 4 (Sam Shoemaker 4)
Corners: West Liberty 4, Notre Dame 5
