Women's Soccer outdone in Shootout on Friday in SCAC Quarterfinal

Women's Soccer outdone in Shootout on Friday in SCAC Quarterfinal

IRVING, Texas – It was a wild, thrilling kickoff to the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Women's Soccer Tournament on Crusader Field, as the University of Dallas (6-13-2) and Southwestern University (7-10-2) battled to a stalemate through two overtimes. Eventually, the Pirates would prevail in the shootout, 5-3, to advance to the semifinal on Saturday.

Both teams had opportunities with the ball throughout regulation, but were unable to find the back of the net. Southwestern University finished the match with a 26-12 edge in shots and put 13 on goal compared to five by the Lady Crusaders. At halftime the squads were near even in shots, with SU up 7-5 in that category. In the second stanza, the host school put up seven shots, and withstood 12 from the Gold and Black.

In overtime, Southwestern pounded seven shot attempts combined through the two halves, while the Lady Crusaders were unable to find one. However, sophomore Elena Naccari (Covington, La.) would keep the game alive on consecutive saves in the 97th minute. Her first deflection occurred off an attempt far left, and the keeper recovered to make a glove save on the one-timer by SU's Megan McGrath.

Playing in the team's fourth overtime this fall, UD would conclude the contest in its second tie of the campaign. With a winner needed to be determined for advancement purposes, just the third ever SCAC Tournament shootout would occur. It was the first for the Lady Crusaders.

The team's traded successful goals on the first three efforts. After Southwestern connected on the fourth kick, Dallas would miss to trail 4-3. Angelica Grayson notched the deciding goal to lift the Pirates 5-3 in the shootout.

Dallas was led by senior Mariah Fairbanks (Rocklin, Calif.) with four shots and one on goal. Junior Cascade Mayer (Kapaa, Hawaii) and senior Abigale Weisbrod (Mesquite, Texas) each had multi-shot matches. Tallying the five shots on goal were: sophomore Mackenzie Vasile (San Antonio, Texas), senior Nicolette Perez (San Diego, Calif.), freshman Samantha Deitschel (San Antonio, Texas), Fairbanks, and Mayer.

Naccari snagged her third highest save total of the year with 13 total. The number was also her sixth double-digit save performance, as she finished second in the league with 137. It was also the goalie's fifth shutout to be involved in this year. Four of the five have been at home, and it was the team's sixth overall. The past three games for UD were also shutouts to end the campaign.

Southwestern was led by Malorie Lara, who tied Fairbanks with a game-high four shots. Audrey Silver and McGrath added three apiece. Mady Akers, Emily Schmalstieg, Hayley Miesse, and Schumann all chipped in two.

Kylie Hunt went the distance of 110 minutes between the posts and collected five saves against all five on frame.

The SCAC Semifinals begin Saturday at 11 a.m. No. 1 Seed Trinity University will face Southwestern. Around 1:30 p.m., the No. 2 Seed Schreiner University takes on Texas Lutheran University, who triumphed 2-1 in overtime later Friday afternoon.