EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Missouri Valley Conference women's soccer season comes down to Sunday, Nov. 11, in Evansville, Ind., when the No. 1 Illinois State Redbirds (10-4-3) face the No. 3 Creighton Bluejays (11-7-1) in the final of the 2007 State Farm Valley Championship at 1 p.m.. The winner will be crowned the MVC champion and receive an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The game will be broadcast live by Fox Sports Net and can be seen on FSN Midwest, Fox College Sports, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and Metro Sports.
"We may not have played our best game against Drake, but we showed the character of a quality team by finding a way to win," said head coach Drew Roff after the semifinal game. "The players showed great character by hanging in there and kept believing in themselves. They kept fighting to score that last goal and now we get to play for a championship which was our ultimate goal all season."
The Redbirds advanced to their third championship game in school history with a thrilling 3-2 double-overtime win over No. 4 Drake in the first semifinal on Friday, Nov. 9. Senior Bethany Russ scored two goals, including the game-winner within the first minute of double overtime. The Redbirds took a 2-0 lead with a pair of goals in a three-minute stretch of the second half, but lost it late in regulation when the Bulldogs netted two scores within six minutes of each other. After a scoreless first overtime that saw both teams nearly break the tie, Russ was able to put home the game-winner off assists by freshman Bethany Brown and senior Yvonne Northover. Sophomore Ammanda Wisniewski scored the other ISU goal and senior Amanda Lauber and junior Mel Routledge also picked up assists.
Creighton beat No. 2 Evansville in the other semifinal, 3-1. Junior Marcy Gans recorded just the third hat trick in MVC Championship history to propel the Jays into the final. She scored twice in just over a minute to put Creighton ahead early and sealed the game with her third tally eight minutes into the second half. Evansville had 21 shots in the match, but just four were on goal. The Bluejays have been in the tournament final in five of the last six seasons and have won three titles during that span.
Illinois State leads the all-time series with Creighton, 8-5-2. The Redbirds are 3-1-2 in the last six meetings, including a 2-1 win in Normal earlier this season. Northover scored two goals late in the second half and ISU held on to win despite a tally by Gans in the 86th minute. The first-ever meeting in 1996, a 4-0 win by Creighton, is the only game in the series that wasn't decided by one goal or less,
The Redbirds and Bluejays have met three times in the MVC Tournament. In 1997, the Bluejays bested the Redbirds in a quarterfinal match, 2-0. In 2002, Creighton was a 1-0 winner in overtime to claim its first MVC Tournament title. The Redbirds exacted their revenge the following year by beating the Bluejays in penalty kicks, 5-4, after a scoreless game to win their first MVC Tournament crown.
