The song California Dreamin’ was made famous by The Mamas & the Papas in the mid-1960s and it could not have been more appropriate for the University of Miami women’s soccer team on Saturday afternoon.
That’s because California is where the Canes are headed after a dramatic 3-2 double-overtime victory over Alabama in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Cobb Field on the University of Miami campus.
The win — UM’s first-ever in postseason play — followed first-round defeats in 2001, ’07 and ’08. Miami (10-7-1) advances to the second round Friday, when it will travel to Southern California to play either Long Beach State or Pepperdine.
“It’s hard to put into words right now. There is so much emotion running around,” UM coach Tom Anagnost said. “This is obviously the biggest moment in the history of our program.’’
The moment that sent Anagnost and the rest of his players storming the field in celebration came 90 seconds into the second 10-minute overtime period when midfielder Kate Howarth split two Alabama defenders with a perfect pass to forward Ashely Flinn, creating a one-on-one with Crimson Tide goalkeeper Justine Bernier.
Flinn didn’t pull the trigger too quickly, waiting patiently for Bernier to commit, and then she left-footed the ball into the bottom right corner of the net to end the contest in the 102nd minute.
“I just wanted to make sure I put it on target and [got] a good foot on it,” Flinn said. “It’s just a great feeling for me and a great win for our program.”
Said Howarth: “We work on that play a lot in practice. I knew Ashley had been beating her defender all day long and that if I could just squeeze that ball through she might have a play, and it worked out.”
Alabama’s Laura Lee Smith put the Crimson Tide ahead 2-1 with 20:03 left in regulation, but the Hurricanes answered with a goal by Tara Schwitter with a little more than 14 minutes left.
“The key was we didn’t panic when we fell behind,” Howarth said. “After they scored that second goal, we just had to take a second, get recomposed and go back to work because we knew we had been getting the better chances against them all day.”
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment