Corban's Audrey Sullivan helped lift the Warriors to a quarterfinal win over Oregon Tech by scoring her 16th & 17th goals of the season, as Corban earned a victory Tuesday over the Owls in sloppy conditions in Salem.
Corban Advances in CCC Championship With Win Over Oregon Tech
BOX SCORE
SALEM, Ore. – In the quarterfinals of the 2013 Cascade Collegiate Conference Women's Soccer Championship presented by U.S. Bank, Corban University earned a 3-1 win over Oregon Tech in sloppy conditions Wednesday on Warrior Field to advance to this weekend's semifinals.
Corban (11-6-2) got a pair of goals in the second half from Audrey Sullivan, as well as a first half goal by Katelyn Weaver en route to securing its second postseason win against Oregon Tech in program history. On the other hand, Oregon Tech (7-10-1) concluded its season with the Owls' second playoff loss to the Warriors since 2010.
After a scoreless opening 32 minutes, Corban would break the tie when Weaver collected a rebound in the box and scored her third goal of the season at the 32:01 mark. Sullivan would begin the play by unleashing a shot that was saved by OIT's keeper only to trickle away to an open area, as Weaver took advantage of the loose ball and sent her first shot of the game into the back of the net to put the host Warriors ahead by the score of 1-0.
Neither team would score again in the first half, as Corban registered three more shots (9-to-6) than Oregon Tech with the Warriors putting 66.7% (6-of-9) of their shots on goal versus the Owls' 50.0% (3-of-6).
The second half would begin with a bang, as Sullivan netted her 16th goal of the season a mere 22 seconds after the opening whistle off an assist from Randi Donahue. The scoring play would begin with Donahue sending a ball from the far sideline into the box where Sullivan was waiting, as the fourth-year Warrior headed the pass up and over a leaping OIT goalkeeper into the left side of the net for the eventual game-winner putting Corban ahead 2-0 at the 45:22 mark.
Twelve minutes later, Sullivan would push the Warriors' lead to three goals with her team and conference-leading 17th goal of the season off an assist from Kaylyn Siobal. The play would begin with Siobal sending a pass into the box from the far sideline, as Sullivan collected the ball and quickly spun around an Oregon Tech defender before depositing a shot into the back of the net that put Corban ahead 3-0 at the 56:54 mark.
Corban would completely control the offensive flow throughout the second half, as Oregon Tech's lone goal of the game came in the 89th minute when Meghan Drost took advantage of a misplayed ball by the Warriors' goalkeeper and scored her first goal of the season. At the 88:28 mark, Drost would collect a loose ball in the box that had gotten away from a diving Corban net-minder and deposited the Owls' only shot of the second half into a wide-open net for the final score of 3-1 in favor of the home team.
Goalkeeper Kaitlyn Mendenhall played a combination of almost 78 minutes between the pipes for Corban, as she was relieved for a 12-minute stretch in the second half by Alexis Beattie in order to give the fourth-year Warrior an opportunity to hear cheers from the home crowd one final time during her career. The goalkeeping tandem combined to register three saves, as Mendenhall tallied all of them in the first half despite allowing OIT's late goal.
At the other end of the field, Oregon Tech's Rebekah Matteri registered a game-high 13 saves for the Owls that included numerous point-blank chances that forced her to make diving spots to both sides in order to keep OIT within striking distance.
Overall, Corban would register 19 more shots (26-to-7) than Oregon Tech that included a 17-to-1 advantage in the second half. The host Warriors would put 14 shots on target, while the Hustlin' Owls got four on goal.
Corban will move on in the CCC Championship to take on No. 2 seed and nationally-ranked Northwest in the semifinals on Saturday, November 9th, beginning at 1:30 p.m. in Kirkland, Washington.