Springfield, Mass. – October 31, 2023 – The fourth-seeded Springfield College women's soccer team advanced to the 2023 New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Championship Tournament Semifinals tonight after defeating fifth-seeded Smith College in a penalty kick shootout in the quarterfinal round.

Springfield pushed its record to 8-4-6 on the year and will travel to top-seeded and No. 14 nationally-ranked MIT on Thursday, November 2 for the NEWMAC semifinal round, while Smith saw its season come to a close with a record of 6-6-5. Springfield earned its fourth 1-1 draw in its past five matches dating back to October 18 against WPI.

Tonight's matched the second time in four days that Springfield and Smith played to a 1-1 draw as the program's capped their regular season on Saturday afternoon in the same fashion.

Springfield tallied the game's first goal in the 23rd minute as senior Jen Walker (Webster, Mass.) was awarded a penalty kick and converted it for her fourth goal of the year and the early 1-0 edge. The score remained the same until 3:43 into the second stanza when Smith found the equalizer. Springfield keeper Taryn Ryan (Holyoke, Mass.) made the original save on Sara Buszkiewicz's shot, but Kyla Warner put back the rebound for her sixth score of the season.

Both Ryan and Smith keeper Noemi Howland made some outstanding saves over the course of 110 minutes of play to send the contest into penalty kicks. Howland ended her night with nine stops, while Ryan made a trio of saves for the Pride.

In the penalty kick shootout, Smith shot first and Madelyn Boyle's attempt was stopped by Ryan. Nicole Sweeney (Grafton, Mass.) was the first shooter for Springfield, but her attempt hit off the post. Warner and Sofia Romero converted for Smith in rounds two and three, while Springfield kept pace with successful attempts by Sonia Dugger (Belchertown, Mass.) and Gabby Scott (Sea Cliff, N.Y.). In round four, Ryan once again made the save and allowed Karly Suppicich (South Windsor, Conn.) to give Springfield a 3-2 edge. Morgan Watson was the last hope for Smith to keep its season alive, but her shot sailed over the crossbar pushing Springfield into the NEWMAC semifinals on Thursday.

Springfield is now unbeaten in its last 11 penalty kick shootouts dating back to the 2012 season.

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