Creighton University
Missouri State
Nasseri Buries Game-Winner As Women's Soccer Tops MSU in OT, 2-1
11/6/2009 9:00:00 PM | Women's Soccer
OMAHA, Neb. -- Laura Nasseri scored with 2:30 left in the first overtime, lifting host Creighton to a 2-1 overtime win over Missouri State in semifinal round action of the 2009 State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Women's Soccer Tournament on Friday night.
Third-seeded Creighton (13-5-2) will play top-seeded Illinois State (11-6-1) in Sunday's 1 pm championship match at Michael G. Morrison, S.J., Stadium in Omaha. The Redbirds advanced thanks to a 1-0 victory over fourth-seeded Drake, getting a goal from Jessica Carlson with 30 minutes left in the match.
The Bluejay game-winner came in the 99th minute. After a defensive stand, CU's Erin Gunther took possession over in the back-third and pushed it up-field. She lifted a long pass down the right wing to Brittney Neumann. Neumann would then cross the ball to Nasseri, who buried her second score of the season past MSU's all-Valley keeper Jessica Teahan for her first game-winning score as a Bluejay.
"It was a tale of halves," said CU head coach Bruce Erickson. "We were a lot better the first half and it was their half in the second. We weren't our sharpest and didn't close like we wanted to, but in overtime we wanted to come out and apply pressure right away. That last goal sequence was about as good as we've had all year. It was a great pass from Gunther to Neumann and then Laura made a great run on the ball."
Creighton would dent the scoreboard first, scoring in the 17th minute on a goal by sophomore Beth Fyles. Mary Zapapas set up the play before her through ball helped Fyles beat Teahan to the lower left corner. It was Fyles' fifth score of the season and the MVC-best sixth helper of the year from Zapapas.
Missouri State (9-6-3) knotted the game with 7:08 remaining in regulation on a play set up by Samantha Aguilar. Aguilar launched a shot from 30 yards out that rebounded off the crossbar and bounced right to Jenna Dobkins. With CU keeper Alicia Montgomery still landing from her leap, Dobkins one-timed an easy volley into a wide open net for her fourth score of the fall. The senior's score marked Missouri State's first goal in Omaha against Creighton since Oct. 8, 2000, a span of 636:11 covering six-plus games.
Dobkins nearly put in the game winner with 2:05 left in the second half. She was fed a long pass into the box and was able to out-leap Montgomery and get her head on the ball in a jarring collision, only to see the ball trickle just wide as both players were sent to the turf.
The title match will be shown live at 1 p.m. on Fox Sports Midwest in the state of Illinois, Fox Sports Indiana, Fox College Sports, Comcast SportsNet Chicago and Metro Sports - the league's production company which is based in Kansas City, Mo. The match will also be seen live on alternate cable system channels on Cox Media (channel 22 in Omaha, Neb.), Mediacom (channel 22 in Des Moines, Iowa and channel 22 in Springfield, Mo.) and Charter Media (Channel 8 in St. Louis, Mo.).
NOTES: Creighton is now match 11-1-0 this season when scoring first ...Missouri Sate has not reached the MVC Tournament championship game since 2000 ...Creighton is 18-7-3 all-time in conference tournament play, including a 6-1-1 mark in games played in Omaha ...Beth Fyles now has three goals in her last three games, while Mary Zapapas has four assists in her past four games ...Creighton's 13 wins are its most under Bruce Erickson and its most since going 13-6-0 in 1998 ...Creighton is now 1-1-2 in overtime games this season, while MSU falls 0-1-3 ...Brittney Neumann's assist on the overtime score was her sixth helper of the season, tying her with teammate Mary Zapapas for the team and Valley lead in that category...Sunday's meeting with Illinois State will mark the fifth meeting in tournament play between Creighton and Illinois State, with the last three coming in the title game. Creighton beat ISU in 1997 in quarterfinal action, and beat the Redbirds in 2002 in the title game. The teams tied in 2003 and 2007, with ISU advancing on PKs (5-4) in 2003, and the Bluejays taking a 4-3 edge in PKs in 2007.
