Fairfield Advances To Semifinal Round
MAAC Sports
LAKE BUENA VISTA, FL – The second seeded Fairfield University women’s soccer team and the 10th seeded Manhattan College women’s soccer team battled to a double overtime draw, but the Stags advanced with a 4-2 victory in penalty kicks Friday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the 2013 MAAC Championships. With the victory, the Stags advanced to Sunday’s semifinal round.
Freshman Pam Coufos, who was up fourth for Fairfield, converted her penalty kick to the lower left corner, giving the Stags the deciding PK. All four of the Stags who took penalty kicks successfully converted. The MAAC follows the NCAA penalty kick format which is the best out of five.
Fairfield, now 11-6-2 on the year, will now face Siena in Sunday’s second semifinal game, at 2 p.m., at ESPN Wide World of Sports. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN3.
While the match ended in a scoreless tie through 90 minutes of regulation and two 10 minute overtime periods, Fairfield had a decided edge in possession. The Stags outshot the Jaspers 22-5, and had 13 corner kicks to the Jaspers’ one.
Manhattan’s sophomore goalkeeper Kristen Skonieczny had seven saves. Kathleen Early earned the shutout and was not forced to make a save in the game’s first 110 minutes of action.
After the scoreless regular period and the two overtimes, the two teams began penalty kicks. Manhattan went first, and its first effort went over the crossbar. Megan O’Brien was first for Fairfield and successfully converted to the upper left corner. Manhattan’s next effort again went over the crossbar, followed by Fairfield’s Nikki Stanton who converted with a shot just to the right of the goalkeeper for a 2-0 edge.
Manhattan’s Jordan scored the Jaspers’ first penalty on their third attempt, followed by Fairfield’s Jessica Broadbent successful effort. Katelyn Angelo then hit another PK for the Jaspers to cut the gap to 3-2, before Coufos’ successful shot ended the match.
The loss ended Manhattan’s season at 6-13-1.