Box Score • Final Stats | • VIDEO: Natalie Harold
TUKWILA, Wash. – The shortest player in stature was the biggest in performance on Saturday.
Tournament Most Valuable Player
Natalie Harold stopped the first two penalty kicks she faced during the shootout, leading Seattle Pacific to a 4-1 tiebreaker victory after battling 10th-ranked Western Washington to a 1-1 tie through two overtimes on Saturday in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference women's soccer championship game at Starfire Stadium.
The Falcons (14-5-1) captured their first GNAC Tournament championship, earning an automatic berth into next week's NCAA Division II Tournament. They extended their streak of playoff appearances to 11 years.
"It's hard to get to the NCAA Tournament and 11-for-11 is unbelievable," said Coach
Chuck Sekyra, who directed the Falcons into the playoffs in each of his 11 seasons.
"I'm going to enjoy it even more because this is the hardest route we've ever taken to get there."
The Falcons were ranked 10th in the most recent regional rankings and would not have reached the playoffs without winning get the automatic berth awarded to the GNAC Tournament champion.
WWU (17-1-1) was the defending tournament titlist and won the last two league regular-season crowns.
In the tiebreaker, SPU shot first and converted all four of its attempts, including a shot to the lower right by
Arden Matro that clinched the win.
Heather Young,
Maddie Krauss and
Ashley Shaw also were successful with their penalty kicks for SPU.
Harold dove to save WWU's first two attempts, by Kim Cooper and Catherine Miles. Kristin Maris kicked third and was the only Viking to convert a penalty kick.
Diminutive goalkeepers are rare. But that hasn't stopped the 5-foot-3 Harold from coming up big for the Falcons throughout a career during which she compiled a 34-11-3 mark as the goalkeeper of record with 14 shutouts.
"She makes herself huge," Sekyra exclaimed. "She almost got a shutout on the PKs. She took two away and those saves were brilliant.
"That kid is such a competitor. Nothing ever gets to her. She just always believes in herself and we believe in her. She made such a huge difference in this game."
The teams battled through 87 scoreless minutes in regulation before a frenetic final three minutes.
Falcons freshman
Hannah Huesers netted what seemed to be the game winner with 2:51 left in regulation. From the top of the box, she spun and unleashed a shot that nicked off a defender's leg and carried into the left side of the Vikings goal at 87:09. That was her fifth goal of the season.
Western frantically pressured the SPU goal and finally broke through with just 10 seconds showing on the clock.
Ashton Griffen served a corner kick to the top of the six-yard box that Harold had in her hands before being bumped and dropping the ball in the goalmouth. Miles reached the ball in heavy traffic and tapped it at 89:50 for her league-leading 14th goal.
"I struggled with the goal we gave up with 10 seconds left, just thought our goalkeeper got ran over," said Sekyra. "But in the end, our kids were very resilient and showed a ton of character."
Harold (Vancouver, Wash./Heritage HS) stopped seven shots during the 90 minutes of regulation and two, 10-minute overtime periods.
Alyssa Beauchamp made one save for the Vikings, who compiled a 12-5 shot advantage. WWU won both previous meetings this season, defeating the Falcons twice by the same 2-1 score.
Both teams could have scored earlier, but hit the framework instead.
Freshman Krauss had a ball carom off the left post and track back across the goal line before a WWU defender cleared it in the ninth minute.
The Vikings Delanee Nilles sent a shot off the inside of the right post in the 63rd minute and it rebounded back across the goalmouth before being collected by Harold.
In the 72nd minute, SPU's Emma Hold lobbed a long shot that struck the crossbar.
NCAA WOMEN'S SOCCER
GNAC Tournament – Championship Game
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Starfire Stadium / Tukwila, Wash.
Seattle Pacific 1, #10 Western Washington 1 (2ot)
(SPU wins championship on 4-1 PK shootout)
Scoring – 1, SPU,
Hannah Huesers, 87:09; 2, WWU, Catherine Miles (Ashton Griffen), 89:50.
Shots – SPU 5, WWU 12.
Saves – SPU 7 (
Natalie Harold), WWU 1 (Alyssa Beauchamp).
Corner Kicks – SPU 4, WWU 8.
Fouls – SPU 9, WWU 11.
Offsides – SPU 0, WWU 0.
Records
Seattle Pacific 14-5-1
Western Washington 17-1-1
