Here’s a quick recap of six of yesterday’s first round games. While there were blowouts, there were also games decided on penalty kicks. Of course, the big storyline of the day was number two seed Notre Dame becoming the first national seed to fall.
Notre Dame Exits After Falling in Penalties
In one of the most shocking results in NCAA tournament history, two seed Notre Dame fell to SIUE on penalty kicks last night. The Fighting Irish outshot the Cougars 21 to 3 in the contest but were unable to convert. In the 17th minute of the match, Notre Dame fired off a quick succession of shots, but ultimately, Juli Rossi and the SIUE defense stood tall.
Rossi is the real hero of the game for SIUE. She made eight saves in total for the Cougars including several extremely difficult ones. In the penalty shootout, the SIUE takers were perfect. Rossi’s save on Katie Uhler’s attempt in the third round of kicks ending up being the difference. The Cougars will play the winner of the Northwestern and Kent State.
Stanford Easily Advances Over Houston Baptist
No Andi Sullivan, no problem for the Cardinal. Stanford cruised to a 4-0 victory Friday night. Four different players, Kyra Carusa, Sam Tran, Michelle Xiao, and Logan Karam got on the scoresheet.
Unsurprisingly, the number one seed, dominated possession and keep Houston Baptist for recording even a single shot. In total, the Cardinal dominated this statistic 29-0. Katie Turner kept the scoreline somewhat respectable parrying away several close range attempts. She finished the game with nine saves. Stanford will play the winner Santa Clara and Long Beach State in the next round.
Penn State Demolishes Bucknell 6-0
The defending champs easily punched a ticket to next Friday’s round of games, posting one of the most lopsided scores on the night. Penn State took a 2-0 advantage into the half with goals from Nickolette Driesse and Charlotte Williams. The Nittany Lions piled it on in the second half with another goal from Williams and a tally each from Haleigh Echard, Marissa Sheva and Megan Schafer. Bucknell, meanwhile only managed 5 shots in the game all of which came in the first half.
Head coach Erica Dambach subbed liberally in the game using 10 reserves in total. With a little more than 10 minutes remaining in the match, she even replaced starting keeper Amanda Dennis with Sarafina Valenti. That bit of experience could pay dividends down the stretch. Penn State will play Virginia in the second round.
Virginia Notches a 4-1 win Over Monmouth
Seniors carried the way for the Cavaliers, scoring all 4 goals for the home team. Kristen McNabb’s header in the 25th minute gave Virginia the lead. A minute later, Veronica Latsko was taken down in the box and Alexis Shaffer converted the ensuing penalty kick.
Shaffer added another one in the second half to further cushion the Cavaliers’ lead. Monmouth cut into the lead in the 72nd second minute when Rachel Ivanicki finished from short range off of an Alexis McTamney cross. Virginia’s Morgan Reuther put away a rebound in the 85th minute for the game’s final score.
Nebraska Advances on Penalties
90 minutes of regulation and two ten-minute overtime periods were not enough to decide this match, albeit it became pretty clear shortly after the shootout began who would advance. The Jackrabbits failed to convert any of their three penalty kicks and were eliminated from the tournament. The Huskers, meanwhile, were a perfect 4-4 in the kicks they took.
Nebraska took 13 shots in the contests while the Jackrabbits recorded five. The Huskers were particularly dominate in the second half and the two overtime period. Nebraska will want to work on their finishing before tangling with UCLA in the second round.
UCLA downs Seattle 3-0
Anika Rodriguez got the Bruins off to good start when she converted a shot from the top of the box in the 4th minute of play. That goal would have been enough to win but UCLA added two insurance goals in the second half to pad their lead via Zoey Goralski and Amber Munerlyn. UCLA outshot Seattle 13-7 in the contest. As noted above, they will face Nebraska in the next round.
