Mankato, Minn. --- The No. 13 Minnesota State soccer team collected its first tie of the season with U-Mary 1-1 in the first round of the 2019 NSIC Tournament, before winning the shootout 6-5 to advance to the semifinals on Wednesday.
 
As the third seed in the NSIC Tournament, the Mavericks moved their record to 15-3-1 (12-3-0 NSIC) after defeating the sixth-seeded Marauders on a cold and snowy day at The Pitch.
 
The Marauders were the first to score in the match as senior Malia Brudvik took a corner kick and squeezed the ball in between senior goalkeeper Alexa Rabune and the near post in the 35th minute. The Mavericks had an answer five minutes later as sophomore Jenny Vetter took a through ball from freshman Allie Williams and scored the game-tying goal. Vetter's 16th goal of the season banged off the left post and into the net to make the score 1-1 heading into halftime. 

The second half and both overtime periods played scoreless as Minnesota State and the University of Mary battled to a 1-1 tie and were forced to go into a shootout. The Mavericks outshot the Marauders 7-0 in the second half and 3-1 in both overtime periods.

Being in the postseason, the shootout lasted seven rounds before MSU winning on a 6-5 advantage. Both teams made their first attempts before U-Mary hit the crossbar and Vetter's attempt being saved by sophomore Madisyn Waltman in round two. The next five rounds saw both teams put the ball in the back of the net and then on the seventh round after the Mavericks were successful on their turn, Rabune came up with a huge save in the low left corner to push MSU into the NSIC semifinals. Sophomore Brynn Desens, Williams, senior Alesha Duccini, senior Bri Ciaccio, junior Molly Riley and freshman Libby Spangler all made their attempts for Minnesota State.

Senior Alexa Rabune (13-2-1) made two saves in regulation and through overtime before making the critical save to give the Mavericks the shootout win.
 
Minnesota State finished with a 17-3 shot advantage, including an 8-3 lead in shots on goal. The Mavericks also had 11 corner kicks to the Marauders five in the match.
 
With the other first round matches coming to a close, Minnesota State will face the second-seeded Augustana Vikings in the semifinals of the NSIC Tournament. Top-seeded Concordia-St. Paul also won its first round match and will host the rest of the tournament in St. Paul, Minn., on Friday and Sunday. The Mavericks and Vikings will square-off at Sea Foam Stadium in the first of two semifinal matches at 11:00 a.m., on Friday.

Head coach Brian Bahl commented following the match.