BOXSCORE NCAA DIVISION III WOMEN'S SOCCER PAGE

MOORHEAD, Minn. -- The Augsburg College women's soccer team played to a scoreless, two-overtime tie with Concordia College-Moorhead, but the Cobbers claimed the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference playoff championship with a 7-6 decision after 10 rounds of penalty kicks on Saturday afternoon at the Jake Christiansen Athletic Complex.

After playing 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, the teams went to a penalty kick shootout. The teams were tied 4-4 after five rounds of penalty kicks, then went to five more rounds of sudden-victory penalty kicks before Concordia was able to clinch the final result with a 7-6 penalty-kick advantage.

"It was a great championship game. Concordia was better than us in the second half, but as we've done all year, we got after the game in overtime and created some good chances to win," said Augsburg head coach Mike Navarre. "It's too bad you have to go to penalties, especially 10 players deep, to determine who gets the trophy and the automatic bid, but that's soccer."

MIAC regular-season champion Concordia (15-3-2 overall) will earn the MIAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III national tournament. Augsburg (12-5-3 overall) will now have to hope for one of the 20 "Pool C" (at-large) bids to the 64-team national tournament. Bids will be announced on an online selection show on Monday (11/5) at 12:30 p.m. Central time on the NCAA.com website. In the latest NCAA regional rankings, released on Wednesday, Augsburg was ranked fifth in the North Region.

"Nevertheless, I think we have proved ourselves worthy of being invited to the national tournament. We will find out soon. We aren't ready to say goodbye to the seniors just yet," Navarre said.

Concordia outshot Augsburg by a 17-6 margin, including a 12-1 advantage in the second half, but Augsburg goalkeeper Katie Gajewski (JR, Wausau, Wis./Wausau East HS) came up with nine saves to keep her team in the game. Ali Nelson had two saves in goal for Concordia.

The teams were tied 6-6 after six rounds of penalty kicks, and neither team was able to convert on their next two attempts. Concordia's Sadie Hayes was able to convert on the final kick to enable the Cobbers to win the playoff title.

Molly Allen (SO, Stillwater, Minn.) and Bri Clark (SR, Mound, Minn./Mound-Westonka HS) had two shots each for the Auggies. Sarah Rounds had five shots for Concordia, while Gina Weiss had four shots.

Augsburg's 12 victories mark the second-most wins in a single season in school history, behind the team's 13-4-0 record in 1995. It marks the sixth double-digit victory season in the last 11 years under Navarre.