Springfield, Mass. - November 7, 2015 - With the penalty-kick shoot-out knotted at three apiece and the game-clinching opportunity in the fifth round on the shoulders of Jessica Miller (Southbury, Conn.) the senior drilled a shot into the back of the net to send the Springfield College women's soccer program to the NEWMAC Championship game for the eighth-consecutive season, advancing past top-seeded MIT.

With the win, Springfield, which was ranked 12th in the latest NCAA Division III women's soccer regional rankings, improves to 12-5-4 on the season, while MIT closes its season with a mark of 11-7-3 overall.

Sophomore goalkeeper Ciara Boucher (Manchester, Conn.) was outstanding between the pipes for Springfield, as she finished the contest with a career-high sevens, including game-saving stops throughout the entire contest. For the Engineers, Lauren Ullman (Princeton, N.J.) posted 12 saves in the loss.

Springfield opened the game's scoring just 5:44 into the action, when Miller connected on a flip throw-in from Nicole Fowler (Hudson, Mass.) and found the back of the net to give the Pride an early 1-0 lead over MIT. 

Holding a one-goal lead heading into the second half, the Engineers struck just 37 second into the frame, when Amy Apostol (Los Gatos, Calif.) finished an opportunity set up by Olivia Struckman (Scottsdale, Ariz.) to even the game at one apiece.

Showing its resiliency, the Pride regained its one-goal advantage just 1:55 later, when Fowler took control of the ball at the midfield, dribbled past a pair of MIT defenders, and lauched a shot with her right foot into the top right corner of the net, giving the Pride a 2-1 lead.

MIT once again knotted things up when Apostol posted her second marker of the game with 17:17 remaining, finishing another chance set up by Struckman. The two sides battled back-and-forth for the remainder of regulation and both overtime periods, sending the game into a penalty-kick shootout.

As she did against WPI in the NEWMAC Quarterfinals, Boucher came up huge against Jacqueline Simmons (Houston, Texas), as she dove to her left and knocked the ball wide, before Elizabeth Monsen (Wayne, N.J.) finished her chance to give the Pride a 1-0 lead. In Round Two, Boucher tipped Struckman's bid to her right, as the ball hit the post, before Aly Morell (New Britain, Conn.) converted to give the Pride a 2-0 lead. 

Apostol scored to open the third round, while Ullman made a stop on Fowler to cut the Engineers' deficit to one, before MIT evened the score at two apiece following a conversion from Elizabeth Porter (Brookfield, Conn.), before Julia Cormier (New Bedford, Mass.) and MIT both finished to make it 3-3, heading into the final shot, where Miller buried her chance and sent the Pride back to the NEWMAC Championship game.