St. Paul, Minn. --- The No. 13 Minnesota State soccer team shutout Augustana 3-0 in the first semifinal match of the 2019 NSIC Tournament on Friday.
 
As the third seed in the NSIC Tournament, the Mavericks improved their record to 16-3-1 (12-3-0 NSIC) after collecting their 11th shutout of the season over the second-seeded Vikings at Sea Foam Stadium.
 
The Mavericks scored first in the semifinal match off a corner kick in the 19th minute. Sophomore Brynn Desens, gathering her team leading 12th assist, took the corner kick and sent it to the front edge of the box. Senior Alesha Duccini then chipped the ball up over the goalkeeper, hitting the bottom half of the crossbar and into the back net for her third goal of the season. The 1-0 lead held up until halftime as the Mavericks also had a 12-5 shot advantage, including a 6-0 lead in shots on net, in the first half.

Two more goals were scored by Minnesota State in the second half to make the final score read 3-0. Sophomore Jenny Vetter took a long pass from Duccini and rocketed a shot top shelf in the 78th minute for her team leading 17th goal of the season. Freshman Allie Williams got into the scoring column as well in the 85th minute when she gathered a Viking turnover and scored in the top right corner from the penalty kick hash mark for her 10th goal of the season.

Senior Alexa Rabune (14-2-1) had a big second half by making four critical saves after seeing no shots on goal in the first half for her seventh solo shutout of the season.
 
Minnesota State finished with a 28-13 shot advantage, including a 16-4 lead in shots on goal. The Mavericks also had five corner kicks to the Vikings four in the match.
 
The Mavericks advance to the NSIC Tournament Championship match where they will await the winner of the second semifinal match. Top-seeded Concordia-St. Paul will take on fifth-seeded St. Cloud State today at 2:00 p.m. The championship match will be played in St. Paul, Minn., at Sea Foam Stadium on Sunday, beginning at 2:00 p.m.