PROVO, Utah — No. 5 women’s soccer edged out Utah State in a 7-6 penalty kick shootout after double overtime ended in a 1-1 draw in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on South Field Friday night.
Mia Goettsche notched her fifth goal of the season to put the Cougars on the board in regulation. Mika Krommenhoek added her seventh assist of the year, while Mackenzee Vance tallied her third.
The Cougars outshot the Aggies 24-11 in tonight's 110-minute match, with seven shots in the second overtime period.
Six different Cougars converted the seven penalty kicks tonight, with starting defender Izzi Stratton making two.
"I've been in PKS before the NCAA tournament, but nothing past five," head coach Jennifer Rockwood said. "So it was quite something for what Chelsea was able to do and how she's led this team throughout the Big 12 tournament and again tonight. I’m super proud of what Izzi's been able to do, kind of anchoring our back line and our defensive energy has been our main focus in the postseason play."
Chelsea Peterson came up big for BYU tonight, making five saves in regulation and stopping three PK's.
First Half
Utah State took the first shot of the game at the 3:06 mark, saved by Peterson.
The Aggies held BYU without a shot attempt until 14:20 into regulation when Ellie Walbruch took the Cougars’ first shot, saved by the USU goalkeeper.
Four minutes later, BYU would strike as Goettsche netted a goal, putting BYU ahead 1-0. After a BYU throw-in, Krommenhoek flicked the ball to Vance who dished it to Goettsche in the box who shot it into the upper 90 of the net.
BYU ended the half with an 8-4 advantage on shots over Utah State, each squad having two shots on frame.
Second Half
Five minutes into the second half, BYU defender Emma Neff had back-to-back key stops in one-on-one opportunities with an Aggie forward, the second stop being a timely slide tackle.
The Aggies went on to tie it up in the 53rd minute when forward Tess Werts dribbled it up the field and crossed it to Mia Mullenmeister for a header into the back of the net.
With 15 minutes left in regulation, Peterson was one-on-one with an Aggie forward charging towards the goal before she made a sliding save on the shot attempt to keep the game at 1-1.
BYU’s final shot on frame came with five minutes to go when Walbruch crossed it to Goettsche for a shot that was saved by the USU goalkeeper.
The Cougars ended regulation out shooting the Aggies 17-8 with each team at five apiece on frame with the score at a 1-1 tie
First Overtime Period
With a minute left in the first overtime period, Stratton came up with a huge defensive stop, stealing away the ball from the feet of an Aggies forward inside the 18-yard box.
BYU did not take a shot in the period while USU attempted one as it stayed at a 1-1 draw.
Second Overtime Period
The Cougar ramped up their offensive pressure in the second overtime period with three shots in the first four minutes of the period, two on frame. The shots on goal came at the 102:11 mark when a Halle Dixon attempt hit off the crossbar, and a Walbruch shot in the box was denied a minute later.
USU went for a counterattack with five minutes left, but to no avail as Peterson collected her fifth save on the night to keep the game at a draw.
BYU’s offensive attack edged out Utah State in shot attempts 7-2 in the second overtime going into the penalty kick shootout.
Penalty Kick Shootout
Each team had 10 different players take 11 penalty kicks.
Vance missed the first for the Cougars, then Walbruch knocked down the second. Utah State made its first two penalty kicks.
After Stratton made the third BYU attempt, Peterson denied the Aggies’ third.
Kesler had her kick saved, while Krommenhoek converted BYU's fifth shot. attempt. Utah State buried its fourth, but Peterson denied the Aggies their fifth, tying it up at 3-3.
Dixon hit the crossbar on the next kick with Peterson denying the Aggies’ sixth attempt.
The next two tries for BYU and Utah State were both scored with Afton Perry and Maddyson Summers making those attempts.
With the Aggies’ eighth kick going in, Mia Lopez had hers go wide right of the net. Peterson came up big once again with her third save in the shootout on USU’s ninth kick.
Goettsche and Stratton knocked down attempt numbers 10 and 11 for the Cougars and the Aggies made their 10th.
USU’s final shot attempt went wide right to help BYU earn a 7-6 shootout win and advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Up Next
BYU will move on to the round of 32 to face the winner of the UCLA vs. Pepperdine matchup on Thursday, Nov. 20th.
Head Coach Jennifer Rockwood
Opening Statement
“I knew when we saw the tournament seeding that we would most likely face Utah State, and that’s a tough draw for a team that is a five seed to have to play a team as good as Utah State. I think that's probably one of the toughest seeded games that any team had to play. I have tons of respect for head coach Manny Martins and the Utah State team. They do a fantastic job. We knew it would be a battle. I thought when we went up one to zero, I thought we had good momentum and we'd probably score again. But you can never count Utah State out. They competed for 90 minutes, and then they tied it up and I think we lost a little bit of our momentum. Izzi was our third shooter in the penalty kicks, but you can change the order when you get past all ten shooters into the second round of kicks, and I think Izzi felt confident, and that takes a lot of guts and a lot of leadership to step up and do what she did. So super proud of that, and what a crowd, what an atmosphere for women's soccer, super proud of all the help and all the support that we get. And it was a fantastic night for college soccer.”
On mentality going into the next round
“Something that we've really focused on, especially the last part of our season this last month, is just not worrying too much about what our opponents are doing and knowing what we're good at. We could have been a little cleaner tonight, and I think that makes you anxious to say, hey, we played pretty well, but we know there's more in us. We know we can play better and cleaner, so just sticking to what we do well, what's got us to this point and doing it all together as a full team."
Goalkeeper Chelsea Peterson
On her role in shootout situations
“In shootouts, my role is to save one and let our shooters score. Outside of that, my role is to create chaos and make the shooters just mind turn to goop. So I'll do whatever that means. A lot of times it means making me look like a crazy person. But if it gets the job done, it gets job done. Tonight that job got done.”
On taking penalty kicks on at a time
“Yeah, I think just making my best judgment and committing to it. These girls took shots that required me to fully extend so just committing to my decision and going for it was all I was thinking about.”
On her one on one in the 75th minute
“I just do it. We've done this for so long that this is what we do. And of course, there's thought and angles and positioning and what they're doing, what I'm doing, but at the end of the day, you just got to make the save. That’s what I did.”
Peterson on winning as a team
“I think soccer is interesting because whoever scores it, whoever saves it, then a lot of times the eyes are on them. As I'm looking at the roster, it’s the whole team that's winning these games. It's every piece of the puzzle helping us win games.”
Defender Izzi Stratton
On mentality during penalty kicks
“Definitely just going in confident. PKS are 95% mental and so right when we stepped off the field we said to ourselves; square your shoulders, keep your head up, get the job done. If you don't feel like you own the place, act like you do, and then get the job done.”
On taking penalty kicks one at a time
“I think it goes back to your preparation. I feel like I've taken probably hundreds of PKS just in my front yard, and so when it really counts, it's just muscle memory, honestly.”
On F.A.M.I.L.Y. acronym
“It's an acronym for “forget about me, I love you,” and bringing that selfless energy to our team has been so important. Like Jen [Rockwood] said, we've been dealing with a bunch of injuries. It's been a long, long season, hard season, but I think just showing up every day because there's 30 other girls around you that you love and you want to be there for. It's definitely been a huge theme for us, and I feel like we're really close because of how much we've been through, and how much adversity we faced before coming into the postseason.”