Women's Soccer 10/29/05 -- Augsburg 0, St. Thomas 0 (2OT)

BOXSCORE

ST. PAUL, Minn. (10/29/05) -- For the second straight year, the Augsburg College women's soccer team qualified for the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason playoffs, after the Auggies clinched a bid as the No. 4 seed with a 0-0, two-overtime tie at the University of St. Thomas on Saturday afternoon.

Augsburg clinched the fourth seed on a tiebreaker with St. Benedict, which lost 4-1 to Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday. Both teams had 14 conference points, but Augsburg clinched the playoff bid based on head-to-head results, as Augsburg topped St. Benedict 2-0 on Oct. 18.

Augsburg (8-2-7 overall, 5-2-4 MIAC) will play on Tuesday (11/1) at 7:30 p.m. at top-seed and MIAC regular-season titlist Macalester (16-0-1 overall, 10-0-1 MIAC). Augsburg handed Macalester its lone tie of the season, a 1-1 draw on Sept. 28 at Augsburg. Meanwhile, No. 3-seed St. Thomas (9-7-1 overall, 7-3-1 MIAC) will play at No. 2 seed Concordia-Moorhead (14-3-0 overall, 9-2-0 MIAC) on Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Moorhead. The winners will meet in the conference playoff title game on Saturday (11/5), with the playoff champion receiving an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national playoffs.

St. Thomas outshot Augsburg by an 18-15 margin, as both goalkeepers claimed shutouts. Augsburg goalkeeper Maggie DeGroot (Fr., Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West HS) made six saves to record her eighth shutout of the season, just one away from the school's single-season record of nine, set by Beth Petrik in 1997 and Laura Hoffman in 2002.

Meanwhile, St. Thomas goalkeeper Dana Vilar made eight saves to pick up the shutout, the Tommies' sixth straight shutout. St. Thomas is 5-0-1 in its last six games.

Aili Brom-Palkowski (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./South HS) had four shots for Augsburg, while Noreen Hogan (So., Moline, Ill./Alleman HS) and Emily Anderson * (Jr., Hudson, Wis.) had three shots each. Christine Williams had four shots for St. Thomas, with Jessica Magnuson, Stephanie Paasch and Sarah Balgord adding three shots apiece