LITTLE ROCK- The Trojans advanced to the semifinal round after battling a scrappy Arkansas State side to a 1-1 draw after two overtime periods and then prevailing in the penalty shootout.
Sara Johannsdottir made two clutch saves in the shootout to send Little Rock to the semifinals of the Sun Belt tournament for the second consecutive season.
"I thought it was a great performance tonight," said Head Coach
Mark Foster. "I thought Arkansas State fought hard. Obviously, in a penalty shootout anything can happen but I thought in terms of the passage of play we were slightly better than them. We earned the wee bit of luck that we deserved. [The ladies] we're amazing."
The Trojans struggled to find a rhythm in the first half as they were forced to play against the gusting winds at the field. Little Rock nearly score, however, in the 12
th minute when
Morgan Smocovich delivered a dangerous ball from a set piece just outside the penalty area. The ball bounced around the box and was cleared off the line before a Trojan attacker could provide a scoring touch. The Red Wolves capitalized on the confusion and started a counterattack that would create the opening goal. Johannsdottir saved the initial shot from Sarah Sodoma but Hailey Furio was there to tap in the rebound and give her team a 1-0 advantage.
Little Rock would come out strong in the second half and dominate possession for majority of the second 45 minutes. A barrage of shots on goal led to corner kick in the 58
th minute. Smocovich whipped in a beautiful cross and
Liesa Seifert used her height to rise up to head the ball into the back of the net to get back on level terms and make the score 1-1.
Jaclyn Purvine had a chance to give the Trojans the win in regular time but her long range effort in the dying seconds was denied by Red Wolves goalkeeper Kelsey Ponder.
The two overtime periods did not feature many scoring opportunities from either team, tired legs staggered the attack of both teams down the stretch.
The game would head to a penalty shootout, the winner heading to the semifinal round.
Seifert stepped up for the first penalty and calmly slotted it home before Johannsdottir saved the first Arkansas State penalty to give the Trojans the edge.
A Little Rock miss from the spot and a Red Wolves conversion leveled the score of the shootout, but
Arola Aparicio Gili showed her senior leadership by scoring the next penalty. ASU leveled the score once again but Tucker knocked down her spot kick to give the Trojans the advantage yet again. With another Arkansas State conversion and composed finish from
Nora Hellmers, all Little Rock had to do was save one more penalty to earn a spot in the next round. Johannsdottir did just that as the freshman saved the last penalty to send her team through.
Little Rock will return play the semifinal game against the winner of the number three and six seed game (Coastal Carolina and Georgia State) on Friday, Nov. 2 at 7 p.m. in Foley, Ala.
#LittleRocksTeam
