WEATHERFORD, Okla. – For the first time since the 2014 season, the Southern Nazarene Women's Soccer team finds themselves advancing in the Great American Conference Tournament. A game winning goal in the second overtime period propelled the Crimson Storm (2-4-1, 1-4-1 GAC) over the No. 3 seeded Southwestern Oklahoma State University Bulldogs (4-4-1, 3-2-1 GAC) on Saturday afternoon.
In 2014, SNU's semifinal matchup against East Central ended in a 3-3 draw after two overtime periods and ultimately ended in a 4-1 SNU advantage in penalty kicks. Today's quarterfinal contest mimicked the Crimson Storm's last appearance as it also took extra periods for a winner to be decided.
Seeded at No. 6, the Crimson Storm entered the day an underdog after losing to SWOSU 4-0 earlier this season in Bethany. This acted as a chip on their shoulder as the Crimson Storm clawed their way into the semifinal round of the GAC tournament after a gritty performance. Despite Southwestern holding a 27-7 shot advantage, landing just 10 of their attempts on goal, Southern Nazarene made the most of their tries as they netted 3-of-7.
Optimism was bleak early on as the Bulldogs built a 2-0 lead by the 62
nd minute of the match. SNU finally got on the scoreboard as junior
Alejandra Andrade put the Storm on the board, her second of the season.
Then at the 76
th minute,
Rebecca Moore added fuel to SNU's fire with a score of her own, drawing the tally to 2-2. The score sat deadlocked at 2-2 as the contest's clock expired.
After a scoreless first overtime period, the Crimson Storm decided to put a cap on the game in stellar fashion as freshman
Kaitlyn Deaton received a pass from
Sydney Davenport to score the game winning goal in double overtime and send SNU to the semi-finals.
The freshman Deaton also led Southern Nazarene statistically as she came off the bench to fire three total shots and put in the game winner. Andrade and Moore both scored on their only attempts of the afternoon as they helped build the Storm's lead. In goal, Maci Atalla was kept busy all afternnon as she faced 27 total shots, 10 on target, and saved eight.
Southern Nazarene will advance to the GAC semi-final round to face-off against the No. 2 seeded Ouachita Baptist Tigers on Thursday, April 15
th. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at host site Oklahoma Baptist in Shawnee.