Viks fall in tournament semifinals

After recording their best-ever regular season performance, Portland State women’s soccer seemed destined to rewrite the history books in the postseason.

The team had scored an unprecedented 30 goals from 19 games—six more than last season. The Vikings also had a 1-0 regular-season win over their semifinal opponent, Sacramento State.

Alas, history repeated itself for the third successive year in the postseason. The Vikings lost their semifinal matchup of the Big Sky Championship, this time 2-1 to eventual champions Sacramento State in Flagstaff, Ariz. on Friday.

The Viks took a 1-0 lead in the first half, but let in two goals in the second period. PSU ends its season with a 9-10-1 record (5-2-0 Big Sky).Sacramento State marched into the championship match and went on to defeat Northern Arizona 1-0.

“An opportunity passed us by today,” Portland State head coach Laura Schott said. “There was no doubt in my mind, leading up to the semifinal, that we should move on to the final. But we didn’t, and now we’re done for the season.”

When the Vikings and Hornets met at the Hillsboro Stadium in the final game of the regular season, the nature of the game in the two halves was completely different. Before the break, Portland State outshot Sacramento State 9-3 and took a 1-0 lead thanks to a breakaway goal from senior forward Frankie Ross.

However, after realizing that these two teams would play again in the semis, no matter what the result of the game, Schott replaced most of her starters in the second half. As a result, the Sacramento State offense blitzed the Vikings defense with 18 attempts on goal in the second period. In reply, the Vikings only had three shots in the half.

In spite of this barrage of offense, the Vikings defense stood its ground and prevented a Sacramento State goal. At the end of 90 minutes, the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Viks.

Early in Friday’s semifinal game, it looked like the Viks had lost none of their attacking potency. In the 13th minute, freshman winger Eryn Brown gave the Viks a 1-0 advantage with her sixth goal of the season.

Brown capitalized on a Sac State defensive mishap. The Hornets defense failed to clear a cross from junior forward Kala Renard and the ball landed for Brown, who fired in over the goalkeeper into the left side of the net.

In the first half, both teams had four shots on goal, but Schott thought that Portland State was the better team.

“We started the game very well,” she said. “We got a good goal from Eryn [Brown] and had a lot of possession.”

But the second half statistics were once again clearly in favor of Sacramento State, similar to the regular season contest. The Hornets had nine attempts on goal to the Vikings’ six. The Hornets equalized in the 55th minute through senior forward Leah Larot and took a 2-1 lead in the 79th minute through junior forward Elece McBride.

The Vikings gave it everything they had in the dying minutes of the game, and the Hornets responded with similar sentiments. The last 10 minutes of the game saw two yellow cards for Sacramento State and a red and two yellows for Portland State. Sophomore midfielder and Big Sky Offensive Player of the Week Amanda Dutra was sent off in the 84th minute.

The Viks had one final chance in the last minute of regulation to draw level and take the game into overtime. Junior defender Toni Carnovale took a free kick that was almost headed into the goal by freshman midfielder Teal Sigler. However, the referee blew the final whistle soon after. Sacramento State had beaten Portland State 2-1 and closed the curtains on the Viks’ 2010 campaign.

“The team worked hard and wanted to win during both halves. No question about that,” Schott said. “This year, I talked a lot about the difference between playing hard and playing smart. The ultimate difference in the game was we only executed and anticipated for one half.”

The coach expressed her satisfaction at the overall performance of the team this season, but also spoke of her disappointment about losing in the semis.

“We won five conference games this year and that has never been done at Portland State. In a lot of ways we had a good year; a lot of players had very good regular seasons,” Schott said. “At the same time, not advancing to the conference final or NCAA Tournament is very disappointing. We should have been preparing for a game on Sunday.”

In the other semifinal on Saturday, regular season champion Northern Arizona prevailed 1-0 against Northern Colorado with a goal from forward Jenna Samora in the 58th minute.

On Sunday, Northern Arizona took on Sacramento State in the Big Sky championship game. In spite of creating more chances, favorites Northern Arizona could not convert. On the other hand, Sacramento State’s McBride scored in the 52nd minute to give the Hornets a 1-0 win and crown them as the 2010 Big Sky Champions. ?