| Shaun Banta scored her first goal in more than a month to tie the game 1-1 with under two minutes to play in regulation. |
Ann Arbor, Mich.; November 4, 2006 ?C After a very uneventful first half and majority of the second half, the action picked up in the final 10 minutes of the Big Ten Tournament semifinal between Michigan State and No. 6 Penn State. The seventh-seeded Spartans, who knocked off second-seeded Indiana in the quarterfinals on Friday, scored the first goal of the game with just 8:05 remaining in the second half.
From that point, third-seeded Penn State turned up its offensive pressure. After having taken just four shots in the first 67 minutes of the game, the Nittany Lions scored the equalizer with just 1:59 remaining in the second half on a goal by Shaun Banta, her first since September 29.
Then, in the overtime period, Penn State took five shots, and on the last one, Kiersten Wood knocked in the rebound off a shot by Annelise Legel that had been saved to give the Nittany Lions a come-from-behind 2-1 overtime win over the Spartans in the semifinals of the Big Ten Tournament. It was the second straight game-winning goal for Wood. With the win, Penn State advances to the tournament championship game tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. where the Lions will face fifth-seeded Iowa, who upset top-seeded Ohio State in the first semifinal of the day.
The first half saw just five combined shots and one Penn State penalty corner generated by both teams. Each goalie turned away one shot in the opening frame to squash both teams?? best respective scoring chance.
The Nittany Lions had three more shots, one off a penalty corner, in the early part of the second half while the Spartans had just one, which was wide, prior to scoring their goal. At the 61:55 mark, Michigan State??s Gwen Riley intercepted a pass on the right side of the field and dribble down the right flank on a breakaway opportunity. Her shot from the right of the inside of the circle went off a diving Penn State keeper Jen Beaumont and into the lower left corner of the cage to give the Spartans a 1-0 lead.
Penn State called a timeout immediately following the goal and after the timeout, generated four penalty corners in the final 4:40 of the game after only generating two corners in the first 65 minutes. On the fourth and final penalty corner of that sequence at the 68:01 mark, Banta deflected in Mallory Weisen??s shot off the corner for her Big Ten-leading 14th goal of the season and her first in over a month. It was Weisen??s eighth assist of the year, which ties her for the team lead with Allison Scola.
After Beaumont made a nice save of Michigan State??s only shot of the overtime period just 17 seconds in, Penn State controlled play for the remainder of the extra frame. The Nittany Lions generated three more penalty corners in overtime, the last of which would lead to the game-winning goal. Michigan State was awarded its first penalty corner of the game in the overtime but was not able to get a shot off of it.
At the 78:26 mark, the ninth Nittany Lion penalty corner of the game led to a shot from close range by Legel. It was saved by MSU keeper Stephanie Yuhasz but after a scrum in front of the cage, Wood knocked home the rebound for the game-winner and her seventh goal of the year to complete the comeback.
The win was Penn State??s first in overtime this year after two previous overtime losses. It was also Penn State??s 16th all-time Big Ten Tournament win, extended their lead over second place Michigan, which has 14 and also improving their best all-time tournament winning percentage of any Big Ten team to .667. Penn State also advances to its seventh all-time Big Ten Tournament championship game and will play in the championship for the first time since 2003. The Nittany Lions are 4-2 in Big Ten Tournament championship games and will be looking for their fifth all-time championship and their first since 1998.
Sunday??s game will be televised on tape delay by CSTV. The game can be seen on Tuesday, November 7 at 5:30 p.m. and it will followed immediately by the NCAA Field Hockey Tournament selection show at 7:30 p.m.
Head Coach Charlene Morett Postgame Quotes
On differences between the first and second half
??I said to our team (at halftime) that we had to fight through. I think Michigan State is a good team and they are very quick and I think we really needed to work on keeping possession of the ball and not try to play into them but play around them. We created some really good scoring opportunities (in the second half). I was very, very proud of the way the team came back after giving up that goal late in the game and when we called the timeout we said ??there??s plenty of time left, let??s get our heads up and look to draw some corners,?? and that??s what we did. We drew a couple of corners and Shaun broke her scoring slump and ended up putting in the corner goal.
??Just to see the fight in our team was great. Shaun almost had another goal in overtime but it was great to see Kiersten finish that one for the team.??
On the lack of offense in the game
??I thought it was a choppy game. It was tough to keep possession for us because they are just quick to your stick. I think that??s what made it tough for us. You couldn??t get much flow to the game but I??m really proud that we just fighting through it and were able to tie the game and then come back for the win.??
On Penn State??s NCAA Tournament chances regardless of tomorrow??s outcome
??After today I feel confident. I know Iowa is clawing for a spot in the NCAAs and so are we. You never know what the committee will do but again, we want to look to be the tournament champions. We want to get this championship.??