MINNEAPOLIS -- Alanna Franklin (SR, St. Louis Park, Minn./St. Louis Park HS) scored in the 71st minute, and Claire Smothers (FY, Iowa City, Iowa/Iowa City HS) had seven saves in goal for her fifth shutout of the year, as the Augsburg University women's soccer team clinched a berth in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference postseason playoffs with a 1-0 triumph at Macalester College on Saturday afternoon.

THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: Augsburg 1, Macalester 0
LOCATION: Macalester Stadium, St. Paul, Minn.
RECORDS: Augsburg 8-4-5 overall (4-2-5 MIAC), Macalester 6-8-3 overall (3-6-2 MIAC)

HOW IT HAPPENED
• Franklin's goal capped a successful counter-attack following a blocked shot off a Macalester corner kick. Jayla Ponce (SR, Kuna, Idaho/Kuna HS) centered the ball to Samantha Meyer (SR, Prior Lake, Minn./Prior Lake HS), who fed a through ball to a wide-open Franklin, who popped a rising shot to the top right corner of the net from 15 yards out.
• Making her eighth career start in goal, Smothers stopped all seven shots on-goal she faced, picking up her fifth shutout.
• Augsburg outshot Macalester by an 11-8 margin in the evenly-matched game. Ponce had four shots in 90 minutes, while Megan Hensel (SR, Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury HS) had two shots in 84 minutes. Defenders Meyer and Avery Rich (FY, Minnetonka, Minn./Minnetonka HS) joined midfielder Ponebe Alva Rosa (JR, Jackson, Wyo./Jackson Hole HS) in playing the full 90 minutes in the game.

FOR THE FOES
• Abigail Heuga had seven saves in 89 minutes in goal for St. Olaf.

BEYOND THE BOXSCORE
• Augsburg qualified for its 14th MIAC postseason playoffs since the 2004 season, second in a row and 10th since the 2012 campaign. Augsburg won conference playoff titles in the 2014 and 2016 seasons.

UP NEXT
• As the No. 5 seed in the six-team MIAC playoffs, Augsburg will travel to face No. 4-seed St. Olaf in a quarterfinal game on Monday (11/4) at 2 p.m. in Northfield, Minn.