The Minnesota State women’s soccer team was less than 10 minutes away from a season-ending loss on its home pitch.
Trailing 1-0 late in the second half of Saturday’s game against Grand Valley State, the Mavericks got a tying goal in the 83rd minute from Ashlyn Watt and went on to post a 2-1 victory in a penalty kick shootout to advance to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals in Matthews, N.C., for the first time in program history.
“Since the beginning of the year our team has been talking about how it felt like a special year and that we had a feeling we were going to make a good run,” said former Ankeny Centennial standout Courtney Kovacs, a junior defender/midfielder for the Mavericks. “All year we’ve been working extremely hard and talking about our abilities to make it this far and that we have the opportunity to win it all.”
Kovacs converted the game-winning penalty kick. She booted the ball into the net to give the Mavericks a 5-4 lead in the shootout before MSU goalkeeper Lauren McAlpine dove to her left and blocked Amanda Palmer’s low shot on the final try to seal the victory.
“I took a couple (of penalty kicks) throughout high school and I was confident during the game,” Kovacs said. “We’ve been practicing them throughout the season, and even if I missed mine I trusted our keeper to make the save to bring us back in it.”
Sara Fromm scored for Grand Valley State in the 41st minute, but the Lakers were unable to hold onto the lead. Saturday’s game was the third meeting between the two teams in their long history in the Division II quarterfinals, but marked the first time that Minnesota State prevailed.
Minnesota State (18-1-6) won regular season and NSIC Tournament titles this fall. The Mavericks will play Columbus State in the Division II Semifinals on Friday at 2 p.m. CT.
“We are very excited about this opportunity, and I have a lot of confidence in our team to keep making history!” Kovacs said.