SPRINGFIELD, Ore. – It took over 100 minutes of play before a goal was finally scored in tonight's Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament quarterfinal matchup between the No. 4-seeded Corban University Women's Soccer team and the Eagles of Northwest University. Unfortunately for the Warrior fans in attendance, the Eagles would score that goal in the second overtime period and would ride out the final nine minutes of play to secure a spot in Wednesday's semifinals.
"Looking back at our first day of preseason training and how we ended in the playoffs, I'm incredibly proud of our ladies!" Warriors' first year head coach Travez Whyte stated shortly after their postseason contest. "There's been nothing but growth as leaders, students, players, and followers of Christ. It hurts seeing that our season is over, but we are excited for next season as we continue to build on our culture, style of play, and getting the right people on the Warrior Bus to add to our success! Huge thanks to all our Warrior families who's been supporting us from day one. We appreciate you! We Are Warriors!"
After beating the Eagles (10-6-2) on their home field during their six-game homestand back in early October, Coach Travez and the Warriors (9-6-4) knew that Northwest would be determined to pull off a first round upset today in Springfield. Despite taking five less shots in total this evening, it was the Navy and Gold who found themselves with multiple quality scoring opportunities in both the first and second half, yet were unable to punch through any of them and instead see an overtime period for the first time this season.
With the new NAIA postseason rules that eliminated the "golden goal" rule and instead see each team play out the entirety of both the first and second overtime sessions, both the Warriors and Eagles were aggressive in trying to score early in order to avoid penalty kicks where anything could happen. Despite their best efforts, Corban would yield that valuable goal just 12 seconds into the second overtime period, as Eagles' forward Gracie VanAssche scored on a longshot opportunity from 30 yards out that seemed to travel in slow motion up and into the netting, breaking the scoreless draw and eventually sending the Warriors home to end their season.
Junior defender Josie Brence had the most success for the Warriors' offensively on free kick opportunities and defensively in keeping the Eagles' potent offense off the scoreboard for over an hour and a half of gameclock, as she took a team-high three shots, one of which was on goal. Junior forward Kelli Huskic was a perfect 2-for-2 on shots that were also resulted in saves.
The Corban women's soccer team concludes the 2023 season with a 9-6-4 overall record and clinched their tenth-consecutive postseason appearance, and their first top four seed since the 2019 season. Coach Whyte will graduate just two senior student-athletes from this year's roster and will anticipate returning a large majority of this year's starting lineup in the 2024 season.
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