Saturday, September 25, 2010

WNCC women's soccer wins two matches in dramatic fashion

BOULDER, Colo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women’s soccer team is making some noise at the CU-Boulder tournament after capturing two victories Saturday in dramatic fashion.

The Cougars opened the contest with a 1-0 win over the Colorado State University Green team, who is coached by former Cougar Nikki Marotta. The Cougars scored just 2 minutes into the match as Brittany McNeal put the ball in the back of the net off of assists from Leticia Lopez and Ashley Gleason.

The match stayed that way the rest of the way as the Cougars defense played another strong contest.

WNCC advanced to the bracket round after winning a sudden death penalty kick shootout with CSU Green and CU White. All three teams finished 1-1 in their pool. The Cougars advanced in the second set of penalty kicks as McNeal scored. WNCC goalkeeper Jessica Taylor then made a diving save to put the Cougars into the Gold Bracket tournament.

In bracket play, the Cougars won another intense contest against Salt Lake Community College 2-1. Salt Lake took a 1-0 lead at halftime. In the second half, Jordan Lutkin was fouled within the penalty box and Rachelle Tekler took the penalty kick and tied the game with a beautiful shot.

Regulation ended 1-1 forcing penalty kicks. WNCC and Salt Lake ended the first penalty kick showdown tied 2-2 as Lopez and Lutkin each scored. That set up a sudden death penalty kick.Taylor saved the Bruins shot on net on the first shot of sudden death. Then Gering’s Jacee Roseberry ended the match by finding the back of the net with her shot.

WNCC coach Todd Rasnic said that Salt Lake is a good team and his team needed a win like this.

“They are a good team,” he said. “We also dominated them the whole game. They had better play in the second half. The entire game was a battle in the mid-field. It was a good game for us to be involved in.”

The win moves the Cougars into the quarterfinal round with a game Saturday night at 8:30 p.m. against the No. 1 seed CU Gold team. Rasnic said they will need to play tough to move into Sunday’s semi-finals.

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