INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – No. 15 Rockhurst's Kaley Neiters scored six minutes and four seconds into the contest to give the second-seeded Hawks a 1-0 victory over the No. 3 seed University of Missouri-St. Louis Friday afternoon in semifinal round action of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament.
The Tritons slip to 12-4-1 overall and will now await word from the NCAA on Monday evening if they have done enough this season to earn a spot in the tournament field when the bracket is unveiled live on NCAA.com at 5 p.m. (CST). UMSL was ranked No. 5 in last week's Midwest Regional Rankings. The top six teams of the country's eight regions will make up the NCAA Division II women's soccer tournament. The conference champions from the GLVC, the GLIAC and the GMAC receive automatic berths, with three at-large berths then made available. UMSL is looking for its second straight postseason bid and fourth ever in program history, having earned a spot last season for the first time since 1982.
Rockhurst improves to 17-1-2 with its 13
th shutout of the year and advances to Sunday's championship against the winner of No. 1 seed Truman State and No. 4 seed McKendree.
Neiters, who also accounted for the lone goal in a 1-0 win over the Tritons during the regular season, broke in behind the UMSL defense and beat keeper
Emily Rish with a shot to the low right from 12 yards out.
Sophomore
McKayla Harder nearly tied it two minutes later, but her shot hit the crossbar - the first of two that would do so for the Tritons in the game. UMSL outshot the Hawks, 5-2, in the opening half, but Rockhurst ended the game with a 13-11 advantage, including a 6-4 edge in shots on goal.
Harder finished with four shots, while senior
Kirsten Crabtree took three shots with one on goal. Her first attempt in the second half struck the crossbar, hitting the top 90 and then the post, but the ball would not bounce into the net.
Freshman
Sarah Lyon also had a shot on goal that came in the closing seconds of the first half, but the attempt was stopped by a diving Ali Wallner for Rockhurst.
Rish played all 90 minutes in goal, making four saves.
