Grand Junction, Colo. - After a scoreless 110 minutes of play and two overtime periods, for the first time this season the Mavericks of the #18 Colorado Mesa University Women's Soccer Team would go into a penalty kick shootout. In an intense shootout that went a staggering 11 rounds, ultimately it would be the Skyhawks of Fort Lewis College that would emerge victorious as they would advance in the RMAC Women's Soccer Championship with an 8-7 penalty kick decision.
#7 seed Fort Lewis will now play again on Thursday against #3 seed MSU Denver in Golden, Colo. for the semifinals of the Championship.
The Mavericks will need to wait to see if they qualify for the NCAA Tournament now when the NCAA Tournament Selection Show happens which takes place next week on Monday the 18th. The Mavs were listed as the fifth team in the field in this past week's NCAA regional rankings with the top six earning bids into the tournament.
It must also be noted that despite the Skyhawks winning the shootout, this game will go in as a tie for both team's records as shootouts do not award a team a win due to them only appearing in the postseason. In the regular season the NCAA does not participate in overtime or shootouts.
CMU's record will now be 13-2-3, with FLC moving to 9-5-5.
In the game there would be a total of 24 shots taken before the shootout with CMU significantly out shooting Fort Lewis 19-5. They would also record nine corner kicks in the game with five of them coming in the second half.
CMU's 19 shots would be led by Sauvelyne Randel who took six shots herself with one of them on goal.
Both teams would feature their best defensive performances of the year tonight as this was the longest scoreless game played by any RMAC team to this point of the season.
Given that the game goes down as a tie, Keely Wieczorek would record a shutout tonight as she played all 110 minutes of the contest with two saves. This would mark her 10th shutout of the season and bring her career total to 20, which is now tied with Lindsay Blose for the most shutouts in school history. She would also match last season's record for shutouts with 10 after today's game.
While the game went scoreless in its entirety, there were two key shots that could have ended the match early. Sauvelyne Randel had an opportunity in the first overtime to make the game settled when she took a shot from the right side of the goal after the goalkeeper cleared out on multiple players fighting for the ball just in front of her. Randel would narrowly miss just right of the net with the ball hitting the screen just feet away from the side of the post.
The Skyhawks then had a chance in the second overtime period when they too would miss an open goal as Sabrina Reyes would hammer a ball that banged off the right side of the post and back into play before the game would ultimately head into the shootout.
Into the shootout portion of the game, the Mavs would have 10 different players attempt shots for them.
The players of Carli Dare, Kylie Wells, Shelby Steele, Sauvelyne Randel, Mira Houck, Adessa Correa, Abby Fotheringham, Ally Wachtel, Sarah Dunn and Braelyn Baclayon would all attempt shots, with them coming in that exact order. Dare would shoot once more after her teammates for the 11th shot taken.
The group of Wells, Steele, Randel, Fotheringham, Wachtel, Dunn and Baclayon would all be successful in their attempts.
The Mavs would look to win the shootout in five after three straight successful attempts, and forcing FLC to make their fifth shot, but the Skyhawks would convert on the shot and then go on to match CMU for the next five shots before ultimately winning on the 11th shot by Jenna Salazar and CMU's shot being no good on their last attempt.
