Posted: Nov 07, 2009
Junior midfielder Sarah Tryon (Fairfax Station, Va., South County) scored the tying goal with 1:43 remaining in regulation, and the University of Mary Washington women's soccer team won a shootout for the second straight game to capture the 2009 Capital Athletic Conference Championship on Saturday in Owings Mills, Md. over Stevenson University. The fourth seeded Eagles, now 12-4-5 on the season, claim their 13th CAC Championship, and will advance to the NCAA Championship for the 13th time.
The Eagles found themselves trailing, 2-0, less than 30 minutes into the game. Stevenson's Stephanie Eyler scored unassisted at 7:51, and Heather Redding added another Mustang goal at 29:08. But the Eagles were able to wrestle some momentum with a score from Bridget Dooley (Marcellus, N.Y., Marcellus) on a Nicole Dierkes (Fairfax, Va., W.T. Woodson) assist at 33:10, and trailed, 2-1, at intermission.
The second half saw a stalemate for 43:17. That's when Tryon broke the silence with a goal assisted by Becky Clark (Doylestown, Pa., Central Bucks West) to dramatically tie the score just before the end of regulation. The teams played through two scoreless overtimes, sending the Eagles to a penalty kick shootout for the second straight game.
Once again, sophomore Grace Rosales (Vienna, Va., Madison) was inserted into goal, and again Rosales came up big, as the Mustangs made just two of five attempts, while UMW got successful attempts from Meghan Seelye (Palmyra, Va., Fluvanna), Chrissy Reardon (Springfield, Va., Robert E. Lee), Kate Parvin (Moorestown, N.J., Moorestown), and freshman Lilly Briedis-Ruiz (Charlottesville, Va., Albemarle), who scored the clincher for the second straight contest.
Stevenson outshot the Eagles, 13-11, and had eight corners to five for UMW. Sophomore Tina Brehm (Springfield, Va., Robert E. Lee) made five saves for Mary Washington, while Stevenson's Lauren Weitzman had four stops.
Mary Washington wins the CAC title and returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2004, when the Eagles advanced to the sweet 16 after advancing in three straight games on shootouts.
The announcement for the NCAA Tournament bracket will be released Monday.