Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- Both the Eastern Connecticut State University and Western Connecticut State University women's soccer teams had their opportunities for additional goals through 110 minutes of action in Saturday's Little East Conference semifinal contest at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.
After the two most successful teams in the conference playoff's 14-year history played to a 1-1 double-overtime tie, third-seeded Western (15-3-3) moved into Sunday's noon championship match against top-seeded host Massachusetts Boston with a 3-1 penalty kick advantage over second-seeded Eastern (9-6-3).
Tracy Sales, Sarah Menta and Katie Wolfe all converted penalty kicks for Western, with Wolfe sealing things when she drove her 12-yard attempt under the crossbar for her team's third successful try on five tries. Eastern freshman Gia Karahalios (South Windsor) recorded Eastern's only make, drilling her shot into the upper right-hand corner of the cage.
With Western shooting first, both teams missed their first attempts before Sales and Karahalios traded goals. Menta gave her team the lead for good and Western senior keeper Caitlin Avery preserved that lead by denying Eastern's top scorer on the season – senior Daniela Marchitto (Orange)– with the only save of the session. Down 2-1, Eastern had an opportunity to tie after Western missed its fourth attempt, but Eastern junior Tamar Merheb's (Bethel) bid sailed wide to the right. Wolfe ended the contest seconds later.
It was the third time that an Eastern-Western LEC playoff match was decided on penalty kicks. Western prevailed, 4-1, on PKs in the 2002 semifinals at Eastern's Thomas Nevers Field, and Eastern advanced on sudden death PKs in the 2004 semifinals at Keene, NH.
Eastern, which downed Western, 1-0, late in sudden death overtime here in late September, scored first Saturday on Merheb's fourth goal of the season which came on Kelly Wallace's (South Windsor) perfectly-place corner kick in the tenth minute .(With her 14th assist, Wallace broke the Eastern season record in that category). That lead stood until Western pulled even less than two minutes before the break when senior Cecelia Dias scored her first goal of the season on a cross from Sales. Sales threaded a perfect ball through two Eastern defenders to Dias, who hammered an 18-yarder under the cross bar.
Eastern keeper Mackenzie MacLeod (Northfield) made two of her four first-half saves in the first four minutes of the match to keep Western from jumping out quickly, and with 13 minutes left in the first half, made a spectacular leaping save of Sales' high shot, knocking it over the crossbar. Two minutes into play, MacLeod gathered in a high bouncer of Samantha Trayer's free kick, then dove at the post two minutes later to knock down Sales' free kick. The rebound fell in front of the goal before Eastern was able to clear it out of danger.
Wallace's header off a serve went wide of the left post eight minutes into play, and Marchitto hammered a wide open shot from inside the box right at Western keeper Jamie Trayer four minutes later.
The Warriors had three legitimate chances to break the tie in the second half. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Blair Church (New London) took the ball wide left on Wallace's corner kick, and Chelsea Downer (Colchester) a minute later couldn't convert two chances two minutes apart, coming up empty on a one-timer off a cross, which was saved by Avery, and firing an open attempt on the right flank into the side of the net.
Avery didn't allow a goal and made three saves over the final 65 minutes after taking over for Jamie Trayer to start the second half. MacLeod stopped six shots. Both teams had 12 shots.
Since losing in double overtime to Eastern Sept. 29 -- Western has not lost, winning nine and tying two. After that victory, Eastern ended its season with four wins, two ties and three losses over its final nine contests. The Warriors are unbeaten (5-0-1) against the Colonials the last six times the clubs have met. Earlier in the series, Western had captured nine straight.
The winningest post-season team with seven championships, Western meets UMass Boston for the second time in three years in the final. Western edged UMass Boston, 1-0, in the 2010 title match after the Beacons had advanced with a PK shootout over Eastern at the Mansfield Complex. In Saturday's other semifinal, UMass Boston shut out fourth-seeded Keene State for the second time this season, this time by a 3-0 score.
