Women's Soccer 10/25/06 -- Gustavus 1, Augsburg 0 

BOXSCORE

ST. PETER, Minn. (10/25/06) -- The Gustavus Adolphus College women's soccer team won its third consecutive conference match on Wednesday afternoon, with a 1-0 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference victory over Augsburg College.

Becca Hagen (Fr., Minneapolis, Minn.) scored the lone goal of the game and Christy Tupy (So., Eagan, Minn.) was credited with the assist. The Gusties improve to 7-8-2 overall and 4-4-2 in the MIAC, while the Auggies fall to 9-5-2 on the season and 6-3-1 in the conference.

Despite the loss, Augsburg still has a chance to qualify for the four-team MIAC postseason playoffs for the third straight season. Augsburg stands with 13 conference points, and needs either a tie or win in its regular-season finale with St. Thomas (7-8-2 overall, 4-5-1 MIAC), on Saturday (10/28) at 1 p.m. at Edor Nelson Field, to clinch a berth in the conference postseason.

Augsburg, with 13 league points for fourth place, has a tiebreaker advantage over fifth-place St. Benedict (9-6-1 overall, 6-4-0 MIAC, 12 points), thanks to a 1-0 win over the Blazers on Oct. 4. St. Benedict hosts league-leader Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday at 1 p.m.

"It's obviously disappointing, but we are still in a great position to make the playoffs, and I am confident that we will play well on Saturday against St Thomas," said Augsburg head coach Mike Navarre. "We've been battling a lot of injuries. Hopefully on Saturday, we can utilize more players and rise to the challenge."

Gustavus had multiple scoring opportunities in the first 45 minutes, and was able to get the ball past the Augsburg keeper Maggie DeGroot (So., Waukesha, Wis./Waukesha West HS) in the 19th minute. Tupy passed the ball in front of the net to Hagen, who kicked a hard shot that found the back of the net to give the Gusties a 1-0 lead, which was all they would need. Gustavus held a 7-4 advantage in shots during the first half.

"This was the first game all season where we started poorly," Navarre said. "Gustavus was able to take advantage by finding an early goal. Although we had some nice opportunities, we just were not able to finish our chances today."

The Auggies turned things around in the second half, controlling the pace of play. Augsburg held an 8-5 advantage in shots, but could not find a way to get the ball past Gustavus keeper Ashley Ohlson (So., Anchorage, Alaska), who recorded her third shutout of the season and improved her record to 5-4-1.

Jenna Iaizzo (Jr., White Bear Lake, Minn.) led the Gusties in shots with three while three other Gusties -- Liz Peterson (Sr., Stillwater, Minn.), Tupy, and Hagen -- had two shots each.

Emily Anderson * (Sr., Hudson, Wis.) had four shots for Augsburg, while Angie Neuhaus (Jr., Minneapolis, Minn./Southwest HS) had three shots and Shannon Olson * (Sr., Bloomington, Minn./Kennedy HS) had two. DeGroot made six saves for Augsburg in the game.