CU's Kaitlynn Tebbs notched her second career hat trick against the Hawks on Saturday.
Tebbs Trifecta Topples Holy Names; CU Advances in NAIA Championship
PORTLAND, Ore.—With each goal scored by junior forward Kaitlyn Tebbs, Concordia dispatched Holy Names 3-1 in the 2009 NAIA Women’s Soccer National Championship Opening Round played at Delta Park on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, Concordia, ranked No. 5 in the final NAIA poll and seeded sixth in the NAIA Championship Tournament, improved to 19-2-0 on the season and will face No.11-seed McKendree (Ill.) on Dec. 1 at the tournament’s final site in Decatur, Ala. McKendree (17-2-2) defeated Midland Lutheran (Neb.) 1-0 to advance past the first round.
Concordia’s win also extended the school’s streak of reaching the “Sweet 16” to eight straight years.
“I am really proud to take this team to the national tournament,” CU head coach Grant Landy said. “There are huge expectations every year for this program and with us being so young, living up to those expectations is very challenging. This group accepted that challenge. We firmly believe anything can happen in the tournament and we will begin preparing on Monday in training."
After playing most of the first half in a scoreless affair Tebbs (Bend, Ore.) found the net with a feed from teammate Kelton McFadden (Boise, Idaho) in the 29th minute of action. McFadden passed the ball through the middle of the field where Tebbs turned a 20-yard low strike outside the right reach of HNU goalkeeper Sabel McGuire (an Leandro, Calif.).
Despite being outshot 11 to 4 in the half, the Hawks were able to answer before the break as Maria Gonzalez (Pittsburg, Calif.) squared the score at 1-1 with a 15-yard dart from the left side and into the far post after receiving the ball from fellow forward Nikol Molano (Concord, Calif.).
With 37 seconds remaining in the opening stanza, Tebbs would strike again, boosting CU to a 2-1 lead with an 18-yard blast after an assist from Jessica Ramback (Mill Creek, Wash.).
Tebbs provided the game’s final with even less time to spare on the clock as she buried a header into the opposite post with the game clock at 89:33.
"We created some really terrific chances in both halves but their goalkeeper (Maguire) made three or four unbelievable saves,” Landy said. “I told the team at half time to just keep creating dangerous chances and things would go our way. The goal right after the half was huge to get us back on top.”
For the match, Concordia outshot Holy Names 19 to 8 and created six corner kick opportunities while limiting the visiting Hawks to just one such chance. Maguire tallied a game-high eight saves in the outcome while CU counterpart grabbed a single save while allowing one goal in the complete-game win.
Apart from the goal by Gonzalez, Eric Udell and Brittanie Perez paced the HNU attack as each player registered a pair of shot attempts.