Maddison Ackiss scored what proved to be the game-winner just 2:45 into the game. (photo courtesy of AJ Dahm, SPX Sports)
ST. PETER, Minn. – The Gustavus women’s soccer team shut out Concordia College 2-0 in the semifinals of the MIAC Playoffs on Wednesday, marking the first postseason victory for the Gusties since 1998 in their first ever MIAC Playoff game. The Gusties improve to 12-6-1 overall and face No. 1 seed St. Thomas in the conference championship at 1 p.m. Saturday in St. Paul.
“The girls and all the other players before us have worked hard to get the program back to this stage and that’s really exciting,” Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie said. “It’s great to finally see all that work pay off. We went from near the bottom of the conference to now going to the conference championship game.”
Sophie Leininger battles for possession with Concordia’s Alexandra Jones. (photo by AJ Dahm)
It only took 2:45 for the Gusties to take the lead as Maddison Ackiss (Jr., Fairbanks, Alaska) found the back of the net for her ninth goal of the season on an assist from Brittany Chase (Sr., Victoria, Minn.). The goal gave the Gusties a major boost of energy and it proved to be the game winner. Neither team found the net in the remainder of the first half and Gustavus led 1-0 after 45 minutes.
The Gusties started the second half similar to the first as Emily Odermatt (So., Minneapolis, Minn.) scored her third goal of the season 8:50 into the second. Coursey Edwards (Jr., Eden Prairie, Minn.) was credited with the assist. Concordia posed a few scoring threats in the second half, but Gustie keeper Ashley Becker (Fy., Farmington, Minn.) kept everything in front of her, totaling four saves on the day.
Concordia took five shots in each half for a total of 10, while Gustavus took eight shots in each half for a total of 16. Gustavus also led in corner kicks 5-3.
“Just the fact that the field from Saturday is soft and there was a lot of wind today, I thought that we did a good job of overcoming those uncontrollable factors,” Burnett-Kurie said. “We put high pressure on. We knew we needed to high press them because they are a great team and they have a lot of talented players. We put together a full 90 minutes where we were able to high press them and really get after it.”
Gustavus now travels to St. Paul on Saturday for the MIAC Championship against St. Thomas, who defeated Augsburg 2-0 today. In the regular season matchup, the Gusties defeated the Tommies 2-1 on Sept. 26 in St. Peter.
“It’s going to be a great game,” Burnett-Kurie said. “Both teams like to try to find feet and they like to try to possess the ball and those games are always entertaining to watch. Our biggest focus now is to continue to work on the things that got us to this point. Going back to the fundamentals and doing all the little things right is going to be the difference. It’s our first time in the conference championship game, but our girls are up for it and it’s going to be a great battle.”
Go Gusties!
Go Maddie
The mattson’s
Go Maddi!!!