Contact: Tyler Bremner, Sports Information Graduate Assistant

WAUKESHA, WI. (Nov. 9, 2024) – The North Central College women's soccer team earned their second consecutive College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) tournament title after outscoring the Carroll University Pioneers 7-6 in a penalty kick shootout.

Early in the first half, it looked like it was going North Central's (16-4-1, 7-1 CCIW) way as Madison DeVriendt was awarded a penalty kick ten minutes in that Caitlin Fitzsimons narrowly saved.

For the first time in eight games, the Cardinals found themselves down 1-0 after Kenzie Blau took Carroll's (11-4-3, 8-0 CCIW) second shot of the game, sneaking past Olivia Mattison in the 20th minute.

North Central came roaring back with five shots on goal but, Fitzsimons continued to lock up the Cardinal attempts, forcing the team to remain down into halftime for the first time since facing Carroll ten games ago to start the CCIW regular season.

Entering the second half, a defensive battle ensued as the first twenty-five minutes saw only a shot on each side, neither of which was on target. With only twenty-five minutes of regulation remaining, North Central continued to hammer the Carroll defense with seven shots.

As the final ten seconds ticked down, a last-ditch effort came from Sarah Andrey making a narrow pass to Jordan Lange to tie the game and force the match to overtime.

The first ten-minute overtime period had only one shot come from the Pioneer's Mari Sagstad as both offenses remained silent. In the final overtime period, Mattison saved the Cardinals twice fending off attempts from Mari Sagstad while Fitzsimons smothered an attempt from Andrey.

Since the score remained deadlocked at the end of both overtime periods, the teams began a five-shot penalty kick shootout. The shootout saw Sophia Hein, Lange, Andrey, Elle Sutter, and Gabriella Galvez take the initial five shots all finding the net except for Galvez but, Carroll followed suit with Ellie Patrickus missing their final attempt.

Since the initial five shots maintained the deadlock at 4-4, the shootout moved to competing singular attempts. Salviola, Chandlar Lay, and Reese Anderson scored their attempts as the final attempt from the Pioneers sailed past the net sealing the penalty kicks at 7-6.

In total, the Cardinals came back to earn their second consecutive CCIW tournament title and earn the program's second bid to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III tournament.

The Cardinals now await the NCAA selection show on Monday, Nov. 11th at 2 p.m. ET. Access more information HERE.

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