The Spring Arbor University women's soccer team notched it's third straight conference tournament championship Saturday, as the Cougars downed visiting Grace College 3-1 to earn the Crossroads League automatic berth to the NAIA National Tournament for the third consecutive year.
Spring Arbor shot out of the gate and created several good looks on goal over the opening minutes of the contest. It was Crossroads League Player of the Year Karly Linton who struck first for SAU. Linton made good on a left footed shot after navigating a host of Grace defenders in the 14th minute of play.
Junior Brooklyn Morgan struck for the second SAU goal of the match and the eventual game winner off a Cougar corner kick just two minutes later. Morgan nodded a header to the lower corner at the far post to give Spring Arbor a 2-0 lead.
Grace trimmed the lead in half a the 30 minute mark when a loose ball popped out to an unmarked Jocelyn Evans deep inside the SAU penalty area. Evans finished the play to make the score 2-1.
Spring Arbor continued to attack before the intermission and had several glorious goal scoring chances either sail wide or get thwarted by Lancer goalkeeper Carmen Barnhill late in the first stanza. Linton restored the two goal cushion for SAU when she cut back on her defender and fired a low right footed shot into the far side netting from 16 yards out in the 41st minute. Spring Arbor out-shot Grace 15-5 in the opening half of play.
After the halftime break SAU had several great chances to ice the game but Barnhill stood tall for Grace, keeping the match respectable.
SAU once again was dominant on the stat sheet, out shooting and out chancing the visiting Lancers in the second half. The Cougars finished the match with a 25-8 bulge in shots and a 5-1 advantage in corner kicks.
"I am happy with the effort our players brought to the game today," commented SAU head coach Jason Crist. "Grace is a good team who did everything they could to clog up the midfield and play for counter attacks. We were disciplined and maintained our composure. The ladies did a nice job taking what the game was giving them today. We created quality goal scoring chances and probably could have been a little sharper with our finishing, but overall the effort and result are good for our team. We will enjoy the rest of the weekend while we wait to see who we will play next."
The Cougars will advance to the NAIA Championship Opening Round to be held next Saturday. The final NAIA rankings and MRPI will be released tomorrow, with the official tournament bracket to follow on Monday. Please check back to this site for further details on the upcoming match.
