Dramatic Jacks back in Summit League Championship

Thursday, November 3

Fargo, N.D.

3 p.m.

South Dakota State University

10-7-2

University of Denver

8-9-2

OT 4

OT 5

OT 6

South Dakota State

Denver

Photo by: Carrie Snyder / C. Snyder Photography

11/3/2016 6:51:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

FARGO, N.D. -- No. 3 seed South Dakota State put together a dramatic effort in the Summit League Tournament semifinals, advancing 4-2 on penalty kicks with a 1-1 draw against second-seeded Denver to clinch a spot in its third consecutive conference final.

The Jackrabbits (10-7-2) won the shot battle, 18-6, on the day, shaking off an early deficit to even things up in the second half before winning the shootout.

Darien Poelstra scored the Jacks' lone goal to lead the offense, as Tori Poole fired six shots and Lindsee Larson added four of her own. Nicole Hatcher recorded her Summit League-leading 10th assist of the season.

SDSU found itself in a 1-0 hole in the opening 15 minutes as a long ball into the box from Mary Dewalt bounced awkwardly to skirt past a charging Maggie Smither towards the head of DU's Angelica Pacheco, who scored her second goal of the season for the Pioneers in the 11th minute

An equalizer looked close over the next five minutes of play as SDSU has two shots in that span, but a save and a shot that went wide right kept the Jacks off the board. Soon after, a header from Larson was inches from the net before DU's Brittany Wilson tipped it away.

Over the final 25 minutes of play, SDSU continued to threaten but were unable to captalize and headed to the locker in a one-goal deficit despite an 8-2 advantage in shot count.

Out of the pause the Jacks picked up where they left off with five more shots and a corner kick in the opening 15 minutes of second half play but didn't break through until the 76th when Poelstra's second goal of the year evened things up. Hatcher sent a through ball past a scrum of defenders, finding Poelstra's feet for the one-touch score.

Play evened from there until the end of regulation, sending the teams to the first of two possible golden-goal, 10-minute overtime periods. Denver controlled the ball a majority of the first overtime, but a stout showing from the Jackrabbit defense kept things even to send the game to a second frame of extra time, where both teams had a shot but no goal.

Scoreless after both overtime periods, the game was officially scored a draw and headed for a penalty kick shootout to determine the advancing team.

Maggie Smither opened the shootout with a diving save, putting SDSU in the driver's seat the rest of the way before Ashley Adams' shot rang true, giving the Jacks a 1-0 advantage. Denver evened things to open the second round, but Hatcher's penalty kick struck gold and kept SDSU in front, 2-1. From there, Smither again came through in crunch time, smothering the Pioneers' third round to the low right corner shot to send Annie Williams to the penalty kick spot.

Williams' shot was good as well, and with a two-goal advantage the Jacks entered the fourth round needing either a save or a score to end things. DU found the net on their attempt, and with the championship game within reach, Raper fired a missle into the net to send SDSU to its third consecutive Summit League title game, 4-2.

What's Next
The Jackrabbits will take on fourth-seeded Oral Roberts in the Summit League Tournament championship Saturday, Nov. 5. Kickoff from Dacotah Field is set for 11 a.m. The game will be streamed live for free.

Game Notes

South Dakota is now 7-3-2 in Summit League Tournament play, going 3-0-2 over the previous three tournaments.
SDSU is now 1-1-2 in overtime games this season. The Jacks are 17-15-37 all-time in overtime matches with a 7-9 mark in single overtime games and a 10-6-37 mark in double overtime contests.
Thursday's shootout was the fourth in SDSU's program history. SDSU has now advanced in three of those four. This was the second shootut between SDSU and DU, with the Jacks advancing in both. The Jacks and Pioneers had a shootout in 2014 Summit League final, with SDSU winning the shootout 5-4.
SDSU has now reached three consecutive conference title games and with a win would become the first team to go back-to-back-to-back for Summit League Tournament titles.
Nicole Hatcher now ranks second on SDSU's single-season assists' record list, and eighth in single-season points (22).
The Jackrabbit are now 2-0-2 as the No. 3 seed in the Summit League Tournament.

Coach Lang Wedemeyer
On the win ...
"Feels good to be in another championship. The girls played a really gritty game, where at times it wasn't all that pretty, but the fact that they were able to come back and tie it up and push it into penalty kicks was really fantastic."

On the early deficit and message at half...
"We were doing a lot of the right things. We were just missing that final touch. Sometimes it was someone not shooting, or sometimes it was a poor decision to shoot. Again, though, credit to the girls for getting back into it."

On Poelstra's equalizer late in the game ...
"I think it was half excitment and the other half was relief because we'd been around the goal all game long and just nothing was going in, so to get that goal was really big."

On overtime and shootout periods ...
"After we scored the goal, we lost a little momentum and gained it back. We almost scored right off the kickoff in the first overtime, and we had a couple other chances we didn't capitalize on, but I think that they were confident, and coming back like that they knew they could win. That confidence carried into the penalty kicks."

On reaching third consecutive Summit League Championship game ...
"Right now we want them to really enjoy this, but it's a really quick turn around, less than a day and a half. So, we need to get them ready and mentally prepared to play a really good Oral Roberts team."

-GoJacks.com-