Oregon State
Arizona State
OSU Solidifies Its NCAA Case In Women's Soccer
November 07, 2004 | Women's Soccer
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Nov. 7, 2004
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State solidified its credentials for a berth in the NCAA Tournament with a 1-0 win over Arizona State in Pacific-10 women's soccer on Sunday afternoon at Lorenz Field at Valley Stadium. Jodie Taylor's goal with 1:01 remaining in the second overtime gave the Beavers (10-9-1 overall, 4-4-1 Pac-10) a weekend sweep of the Arizona schools; OSU had beaten 15th-ranked Arizona 1-0 on Friday.
"A tremendous win today," OSU head coach Steve Fennah said. "We had an all around tremendous team performance today, just a great way to finish the season. We had two wins against two teams that were competing for the Pac-10 championship at the start of the weekend, and both are Pac-10 leaders over the course of last weekend."
The pairings for the 64-team NCAA Tournament will be announced Monday beginning at 1 p.m., with postseason play beginning next weekend. Oregon State last reached the tournament in 1994.
Taylor, a freshman who was the Pac-10's leading goal-scorer and point-producer entering the weekend, gave the Beavers the victory with her 15th goal of the season.
With a standing-room crowd watching the clock wind down toward a tie, OSU's Stacey Mescher tracked the ball down near the top of the box on the right side. She crossed the ball to Taylor toward the middle of the field; Taylor slipped past a Sun Devil defender and drove the game-winner past diving ASU goalkeeper Kim Bingham just inside the right post.
"This puts us in a position for the selection committee to have a good look at us, a very good look at us," Fennah said. "It was tremendously fitting to finish the game with Stacey and Jodie."
The Beavers were outshot 22-10 but OSU goalkeeper Melissa Onstad came up with seven saves to record her eighth shutout of the season. Oregon State outshot the Sun Devils 5-3 in the overtime periods and had just missed taking the win in the first overtime as a scramble in front of the ASU net resulted in two dangerous chances just missing the mark.
OSU wrapped up the regular season with its best Pac-10 record since the conference expanded to a full 10 teams for the sport for the 1997 season. The Beavers also posted their first overall winning record since 2000.
OREGON STATE 1, ARIZONA STATE 0
Score by halves:
Arizona State 0 0 0 0 - 0 Oregon State 0 0 0 1 - 1Scoring:
OSU-Jodie Taylor (assist from Stacey Mescher), 108:59.
SHOTS: Arizona State 22, Oregon State 10. CORNER KICKS: Arizona State 8, Oregon State 5. FOULS: Arizona State 17, Oregon State 18. SAVES: Arizona State 1, Oregon State 7.
