BEMIDJI, Minn. - For the second straight season, the Bemidji State University soccer ended their season in heartbreaking fashion to Wayne State College. It was a mirror image of last season’s Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament third place game, in which BSU battled a 0-0 tie through two overtimes to come up just short, 4-3, in a shootout.
After both teams connected on their first two shootout attempts, BSU took a one-goal lead with a score from Lauren Olivares (So., El Paso, Texas) and a stop by goalkeeper Kari Torgerson (Sr., New Hope, Minn.).
After the teams traded misses, NSIC scoring leader Kelly Hyvare (So., Coon Rapids, Minn.) stepped over the ball with a chance to clinch the game. Hyvare’s shot sailed wide and WSC’s Jenna Pendley beat Torgerson to knot the score at 3-3.
BSU’s Christina Hicks was first to shoot in the shot-by-shot second round of shootout kicks. After Hicks’ attempt drilled the post, the Wildcats’ Katie Kelley squeaked a shot under the hands of Torgerson for the game-ending shot.
Each team had chances to score during regulation with the Beavers acting first. In the first half, Hicks tried to corral a bouncing ball in front of the net, but couldn’t get a good shot on net. In the second half, the Beavers had the ball in front of the net on to different occassions but the WSC defense tightened and kept the game scoreless.
The overtimes we filled with corner kicks by BSU. The Beavers had 11 corners for the game, which included a combined seven in the two 10-minute overtime periods. But, each ball seemed to just miss the mark for BSU.
BSU ends the season with a 10-6-2 record, including 6-3-0 in the NSIC regular season. The 10 wins are the third most in a single season in school history, and the six losses are the second fewest.
Notes: Torgerson ends her career with 618 saves, which puts her fifth on the NCAA all-time career saves list ... Katie Meinhardt, after breaking the BSU career goal scoring record of 30, ended the season just two points short of Becky Elk’s point-scoring record at BSU of 71 ... Hyvare led the team in scoring for the second straight season with 12 goals and four assists for 28 points after scoring 24 points as a freshman.
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