WARRENSBURG, Mo.. -- Fourth-seed Minnesota State's season came to a close following a 4-3 defeat to first-seed Central Missouri in a semifinal match during the NCAA Central Region Tournament, Sunday afternoon at the University of Central Missouri.
With the loss, the Mavericks finish the season 18-3-2 overall and saw their unbeaten streak of 17 matches, which dated back to Sept. 19, come to a close. With the win, the Jennies are now 19-3-1 and move on to the NCAA Central Region championship, next Friday, where they will take on Bemidji State.
In the first half, the Mavericks struck first when sophomore Allie Williams found the top-right corner of the goal from just above the box in the 6th minute. Junior forward and leading goal-scorer for the Mavericks, Jenny Vetter, made it 2-0 in the 38th minute. Sophomore Tia Martin made the play happen by winning a battle for the ball moments after chasing down a deep punt by MSU's goalkeeper, Mackenzie Rath. After Martin won the ball, she played it out front for Vetter to kick in for her team-high 19th goal of the season. In the 44th minute, Kassie Newsom scored to cut the deficit in half for the Jennies. After 45 minutes of action, the Mavericks led the Jennies 2-1.
Scoring in the second half began with MSU taking a two-goal lead, 3-1, after the UCM goalkeeper, Sydney Daris, tripped up Vetter on a break to force a penalty kick for MSU. Junior Brynn Desens was chosen to take the kick and was successful to improve to a three-for-three mark on penalty kicks for the season. In a comeback effort starting a minute later, the Jennies began to chip away at the Mavericks' lead, first, with a goal from Katelyn Poertner in the 49th minute. Then, Ashleigh Martin tied the match in the 52nd minute before Sydney Leslie gave the Jennies a 4-3 lead in the 62nd minute on a free-kick goal. The Mavericks made several pushes to tie the match in the waning minutes but ultimately fell 4-3 to the Jennies in the NCAA Central Region Tournament semifinal match.
Despite being handed the loss, for the third time this season, Rath (13-2-2) made seven stops to tie her season-high for saves in a match. Earning the win in goal for UCM, Daris (6-1-0) made five saves in the match.
MSU and UCM played a tight match statistically. MSU came out on top in shot attempts 19-17 while UCM owned the shots on goal advantage 11-8 and doubled up the Mavericks in corner kicks 4-2.
The Mavericks have been eliminated for NCAA postseason play with the loss and conclude the 2021 campaign with an 18-3-2 record overall and 12-1-2 record in North Sun Intercollegiate Conference action this season. MSU won its ninth all-time NSIC Tournament championship to collect an automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament, making their 10th consecutive and 15th overall appearance in program history. This season marked the 13th time that the Maverick soccer team has reached atleast the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
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