Wednesday, December 2, 2009

NAIA Women's Semifinal Set

On a field more suited for a tractor pull than soccer, four squads punched their ticket into the NAIA Women's National Championship semifinals at the Jack Allen Soccer Complex. Hours of driving rain and high winds certainly was not conducive for the beautiful game, and the teams battled the elements as well as their opponents.

Quarterfinal 1
#4 Azusa Pacific 1:0 #12 Graceland
A 40 yard free kick skipped off the slippery turf and into the far side of the net for the only goal of the match for Azusa Pacific as the elements play their first trick of the day.

Quarterfinal 2
#6 Concordia 3:1 #3 California Baptist
In the first upset of the day, Concordia took the momentum of their golden goal winner the previous night to power past California Baptist.

Quarterfinal 3
(Unseeded) Point Loma Nazarene 2:0 #1 Linsey Wilson

In the immortal words of Carl Spackler, Point Loma Nazarene is "a Cinderella story, outta nowhere." While Loma hasn't won the Masters, they did defeat the highly favored Linsey Wilson squad whose possession game was neutralized by the elements and the solid team defense of Loma.

Quarterfinal 4
#2 Lee 3:0 #7 Martin Methodist
The defending national champion Lee scored and early goal and never looked back. A third minute goal and two second half insurance goals saw the Cleveland, TN side into the semis.

The teams will have a rest day tomorrow before meeting in the semis on Friday. Here are the match ups.

Semifinal 1, Friday, 3PM

#4 Azusa Pacific (California)
vs

(unseeded) Point Loma Nazarene (California)

Semifinal 2, Friday, 7PM

#2 Lee (Tennessee)
vs

#6 Concordia (Oregon)

I'll have more from Decatur Friday.

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