Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
THIS CLOSE
Late goal denies West Chester’s bid for national championship and undefeated season
SEATTLE >> The West Chester University women’s soccer squad came tantalizingly close to closing out a truly special season without sustaining a single loss, and with the biggest prize of all.
But in the NCAA Division II National Championship Game on Saturday evening at Seattle’s Interbay Stadium, the topseeded Golden Rams surrendered the game-winner with less than eight minutes remaining in regulation, and ultimately fell to No. 3 Western Washington, 2-1.
The national runner-up trophy, however, marks the furthest WCU’s program has ever ventured into the NCAA Tournament.
“(Western Washington) was definitely the best team we have faced all season,” said West Chester head coach Betty Ann Kempf Townsley. “I knew it was going to be a 1-v-1 type of game and we had to keep them in front of us.”
Western Washington’s Claire Potter’s cross just caught the far post and went in with 7:27 on the clock and the score deadlocked at 1-1. West Chester (231-1 overall) saw its 23-match unbeaten streak come to a close in the final game of the season. Western Washington (19-2-4) captured its second national title and first since 2016 with the win.
Western Washington’s relentless pressure in the final 10 minutes of the game finally paid off. The eventual game-winner was the culmination of a couple of near misses from the Vikings moments earlier. A service deep into the six-yard box was deflected up and over the crossbar with 21 minutes left in regulation. Three minutes later, the Vikings had another golden opportunity on a 3-on-1 break, but an attempted tip of a shot from the 18 was right at Rams’ keeper Hayley McGee.
With nine minutes to go, McGee came up big again on Vikings’ star midfielder Tera Ziemer when she broke in down the left side, but her shot was gobbled up by the diving keeper for one of her nine saves on the afternoon.
McGee was busy right from the start, making a tremendous save 12 minutes into the match on a point-blank attempt from Western Washington that kept the game scoreless for the time being. However, the Vikings applied constant pressure in their attacking third early on until the Golden Rams’ defense broke down.
The Vikings struck first in the 16th minute when a service into the box was headed on and Ziemer’s shot went off the hands of McGee and trickled over the goal line. Alyson Cutter leveled the score 11 minutes later with a fancy header of her own into the top left corner of the goal off
a long direct kick from Kiley Kergides.
“I saw everybody lining up at the 18, and I decided to just serve it into the mix and see what happened,” Kergides said about the goal.
Western Washington outshot West Chester, 253, and took six corners to the Golden Rams’ two. Vikings’ keeper Claire Henninger made one save.
The 2022 campaign was a remarkable one for West Chester. The Rams went 150-1 in the conference during the regular season, and then cruised to the program’s first PSAC Tournament title since going backto-back in 2009 and 2010. In all, WCU has captured four league crowns under Kempf Townsley.
West Chester made its 15th NCAA Tournament appearance in Kempf Townsley’s 16 seasons, and the lone miss came during the cancelled 2020 COVID season. The Rams went 4-0 to advance to the national championship final of the 60-team NCAA field for the first time in history, outscoring their opponents by a combined score of 6-2, including two shutouts.
For the season, WCU outscored all of its opponents (60-10), which featured an astonishing 16 shutouts.
NOTES: It was West Chester’s second national semifinal appearance in school history (2006) … Saturday’s game marked the latest date on the calendar that the Golden Rams have played a women’s soccer match … West Chester representatives on the alltournament team included Kaitlynn Haughey, Alyson Cutter and Deanna Lebotesis.