OMAHA - No. 6 Indiana State pulled off its second upset in three days, topping No. 2 Illinois State, 1-0, in the semifinals of the 2008 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Soccer Tournament Friday night. The Sycamores broke a scoreless tie with a goal with less than five minutes left in the game.
The Redbirds controlled the offensive pace of the game, outshooting the Sycamores, 16-3, and holding a considerable advantage in corner kicks, 9-1. Junior Ammanda Wisniewski led the `Birds with four shots and sophomore Alyssa Schulz had three. Senior Mel Routledge, junior Raquel Rattray and freshmen Jess Carlson and Natalie McCabe each had two shots for ISU. Freshman Sasha Reiber made two saves in her first MVC Tournament game.
"We couldn't find any rhythm tonight and couldn't come up with that one play to provide a spark," said head coach Drew Roff. "This is a perfect example of how you can't take any team lightly in a tournament situation. Any team that made it to the semifinals deserved to be there. Indiana State played like they had nothing to lose and they really got after it. When a team can hang around like that and get one or two chances to score, they always seem to bury it. Hopefully, with only one senior on this year's team, we can learn from this and come back stronger next year."
The loss ends Illinois State's season at 11-8-1, while Indiana State improves to 5-14-0. The Sycamores will face top-seeded Evansville for the MVC title Sunday at 2:30 p.m.
Despite of only having three shots, all of Indiana State's shots were on goal. Amanda Gogel scored the game-winner for the Sycamores and had two shots. Laura Hall recorded the other Indiana State shot. Emily Lahay had four saves to record the shutout for the Sycamores
Both teams battled cold, windy conditions in the first half and had few scoring chances. Wisniewski put the first shot of the game on goal in the 20th minute, but Lahay made the save. The Redbirds followed with two straight corner kicks, but capitalized on neither. With seven minutes remaining in the half, Hall sent Indiana State's first shot towards the right side of the goal, but Reiber came up with a diving save.
The Illinois State offense picked up in the second half, recording 12 shots. The Redbirds had 10 shots in the first 40 minutes of the half. In the 86th minute, Ellen Gittemeier played the ball through the ISU defense to Gogel, who broke free down the field and beat Reiber for the game-winner.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for ISU against Indiana State and dropped the Redbirds to 2-3-3 all-time as the No. 2 seed in the MVC Tournament.
