RedStorm women shock top-seeded Point Park, advance to RSC finals

Rio Grande Sports Information
     PITTSBURGH, Pa. - It might not have been as miraculous of a victory as the United States men's hockey team win over the Soviets in the 1980 Winter Olympics, but it had to be pretty close.
     The University of Rio Grande scored a pair of improbable goals - one in regulation and one in the second overtime session - and then outlasted top-seeded Point Park University on penalty kicks in the semifinal round of the River States Conference Women's Soccer Championship, Wednesday night, at Highmark Stadium.
     The contest officially is officially recorded as a 2-2 tie, but the fifth-seeded RedStorm advance to Saturday's championship game by topping the Pioneers, 5-3, in penalty kicks.
     Rio Grande moved to 5-10-4 with the tie and will face No. 2 seed Indiana University Kokomo - a 5-1 winner over third-seeded Indiana University East in Wednesday's other semifinal - in Saturday's title game at Municipal Stadium in Kokomo, Ind.
     Point Park, which completed regular season play with a 9-0-1 mark against conference foes, finishes its season at 10-7-1.
     The Pioneers had entered the post-season riding a 10-game unbeaten streak, a six-game winning streak and had posted four consecutive shutout - including a 5-0 blanking of the RedStorm on the same field a little more than two weeks ago.
     "We haven't come this far just to come this far, if you know what I mean. We're in the 'ship," said a jubulant Rio Grande head coach Tony Daniels. "These girls haven't taken their eyes off the prize and I have every ounce of respect you can have for them, given what we've been through this year. They deserve everything they can get."
     Daniels' team, which was picked No. 1 in the RSC preseason coaches' poll, has seen its roster riddled by both injury and player defections over the course of the campaign and played Wednesday's affair without the services of senior defender Ashton Snider (Lancaster, OH), who missed the early portion of the season due to injury and who aggravated the same injury in last Saturday's quarterfinal round overtime win at Oakland City University.
     Still, it was Rio who scored first when freshman Carmen Morris found the back of the net on a high, lofting shot from 30 yards out which cleared the head of Point Park goal keeper Ella Serlin with 6:26 left in the first half.
     It was the first goal of the season for the Lancaster, Ohio native and came off of a pass from fellow frosh Jitske De Muijnk (Nijmegen, The Netherlands).
     That's how things stayed until Athena Beck scored the equalizer for the Pioneers on a header off of a corner kick with 24:29 remaining in regulation.
     The 1-1 deadlock remained intact until Abigail Gnass scored her first goal of the season - a straightaway shot from 25 yards out - to give PPU a 2-1 advantage just 3:28 into the first of the two 10-minute overtime sessions.
     Rio Grande knotted the score again thanks to another high-arcing, long-range bomb - this one off the foot of freshman Emma Hinkle (Marengo, OH) from 40 yards out - with 6:17 left in the second OT to set the stage for the dramatic penalty kick.
     The shootout was even through the first of five rounds, with De Muijnk scoring for the RedStorm and Beck doing the same for Point Park.
     Rio gained the advantage in round two when Morris scored, but the shot by the Pioneers' Holly Pascoe was stopped by RedStorm freshman net-minder Aina Lopez (Barcelona, Spain).
     Both teams scored in rounds three and four, with freshmen Saskia Vos (Sydney, Australia) and Hannah Halstead (Delaware, OH) getting it done for Rio Grande and Point Park receiving scores from Gillianne Stewardson and Harleen Dhasi.
     The match ended moments later, though, when RedStorm graduate senior Cloe Johnson (Valencia, Spain) fired a shot past Serlin into the upper left corner of the net and rendered the Pioneers' fifth and final try pointless.
     Point Park suffered the loss despite a 22-6 edge in shots overall, a 14-4 advantage in shots on frame and an 8-0 cushion in corner kick opportunities.
     Lopez was credited with 11 saves in the winning effort for Rio.
     Serlin stopped two shots in a losing cause for the Pioneers.
     A game time for Saturday's championship match had not been announced as of late Wednesday night.
     Rio Grande dropped its regular season meeting with IU Kokomo, 5-1, on Oct. 6 in Rio Grande.