Springfield, Mass. — November 6, 2010 — A header by junior forward Katie Mantie with 45 seconds remaining allowed Springfield College to defeat Wheaton College, 2-1, in the first game of the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference women’s soccer post-season tournament semifinals this afternoon at SC’s Irv Schmid Sports Complex. In the second game, it came down to PK’s as Babson edged MIT, 4-3, in penalty kicks.
The goal for Springfield allowed the Pride to move into the NEWMAC Championship game Sunday at 1 pm at Springfield versus #2-seeded Babson For more on the Babson-MIT game, please see below.
As for the first match, Springfield, the number one seed, raised its record to 14-4, while Wheaton, the number four seed, fell to 16-4-2. The Pride won by an identical 2-1 score over Wheaton on the very same field earlier in the regular season.
Both teams were exchanging possession in this well-played game as the clock entered less than a minute to play. The contest certainly appeared to be headed into overtime. But senior defender Courtney Price (Enfield, Conn.) gathered the ball at midfield and lofted a ball directly towards the Wheaton net. The ball took a perfect bounce for Mantie, who did not miss a stride, heading the ball ever so slowly past junior Erin Cawley (West Springfield, Mass.), the Wheaton goalkeeper. There were only 45.4 seconds remaining when that occurred.
Wheaton took advantage of a Springfield misplay at the 31:51 mark of the first half. The Lyons had a corner kick that landed directly in front of the SC net. Just as quickly, the ball deflected into the net off an SC defender for an “own goal”, giving Wheaton a 1-0 lead which lasted until early in the second half.
Just 4:59 into that second stanza (49:59 into the game), junior midfielder Jackie Moscardelli (Weymouth, Mass.) found the back of the net to tie matters at 1-all for the Pride. The tally was assisted by sophomore midfielder Sara Dalton (Schenectady, N.Y.).
From there, both teams had decent chances, although Wheaton had the best chance when a shot was deflected by the SC sophomore goalkeeper Erin Greenstein (Framingham, Mass.), hitting the crossbar, then a post, before Greenstein was able to swallow it up with just under 14 minutes to go in regulation.
Greenstein made seven saves, Cawley six. Springfield finished with a 13-12 advantage in shots, although Wheaton had the edge, 7-5, in the second half, despite going against the wind. Wheaton finished with a 5-1 edge in corner kicks.
Babson 0, MIT 0 — Babson advances by PK’s, 4-3
In the second match of the day in the NEWMAC post-season tournament semifinals, it more or less came down to what occurred after 120 minutes of action — the penalty kicks.
MIT had a 19-10 shots advantage. The Engineers, seeded #3, also had a 7-2 advantage in corner kicks.
It came down to a one-on-one battle between the goalkeepers — MIT sophomore Meghan Wright (Devon, Pa.), and Babson junior Lisa Wojnar (Bellaire, Tex.).
In the penalty kick phase, Babson shot first. Emily Anderson (Scituate, Mass.) made the first attempt for the Beavers. And that was immediately followed by a save by Wojnar. So, Babson led 1-0.
Each side scored on their next three attempts. For Babson, it was Carley Martyniak (Foxboro, Mass.), Meghan Andrew (Easton, Mass.), and Amy Festa (Medfield, Mass.) in that order. For MIT, it was Emily Kuo (Chicago, Ill.), Alisha Lussiez (Livonia, Mich.), and Andrea Park (Irvine, Calif.).
That meant that if Babson’s Patty Pytlik (Wellesley, Mass.) could score, the Beavers would clinch. But MIT’s Wright made the save, and MIT had life.
That meant it all came down to MIT’s Merricka Livingstone (Palm Bay, Fla.). If she made her attempt, it would be all tied.
But Livingstone tried for the lower right-hand corner and wound up hitting the post. And with that, Babson celebrated.
Today’s second game goes down as a 0-0 tie. Thus, Babson is now 11-6-2. MIT is 13-3-3.
Babson, the #2 seed, will take on host and #1-seeded Springfield Sunday at 1 pm at the Irv Schmid Sports Complex for the NEWMAC Championship.
