No. 1 Concordia, No. 12 Vanguard play to 1-1 standstill
PORTLAND, Ore.—Losing its long winning streak but remaining undefeated on the season, No. 1-ranked Concordia University tied No. 12-ranked Vanguard University 1-1 on Friday afternoon at Tuominen Yard.
The result stopped a 22-match winning streak for Concordia, the defending NAIA national champions. The result was also just the third non win at Concordia's new on-campus facility as the Cavaliers now hold a 22-1-2 all-time record at Tuominen Yard.
Concordia (4-0-1) got off to a fast start against the Lions with
Ariel Kanable (Beaverton, Ore./Southridge H.S.) fighting through traffic for a score in just the 7th minute of play. Darting inside the 18-yard box, Kanable reached the loose ball nearly at nearly the same time as Vanguard (3-0-1) keeper Lauren Terry. Terry stonewalled the primary offering only to see the deflection spin backwards and trickle slowly across the goal line.
After being controlled for the opening 20 minutes, Vanguard managed to regroup and get behind the CU defense for a retaliating score in the 27th minute.
Working on the left side, Natalie Devries played the ball into teammate Madison Lopp, who had recently entered the contest, where a low drive from 15 yards provided the equalizer.
Vanguard kept the momentum for much of the second half, outshooting the home side 5-3 over the final 45 minutes of regulation.
In the first overtime contest for both teams in 2014, shots remained at a premium over the extra periods as each team recorded just a single shot in each of the 10-minute sessions.
Both of Concordia's attempts were on target as Terry came up with a pair of saves to prevent the loss.
Ashley Ames (Liberty Lake, Wash./Gonzaga Prep) provided the best opportunity in the second overtime with a soft header from five yards out that was repelled by the Lion keeper.
Overall, Concordia outshot Vanguard 11-10 and doubled the amount of its opposition's corner kicks, 8-4.
"Vanguard played well," CU head coach
Grant Landy said. "I felt like, again, we had kind of a slow start, which is becoming an issue for us. The second half was good, I felt like we did a lot better job at creating chances, and denying them some chances. A 1-1 result isn't the worst thing in the world, but I definitely think we can play better."
As part of a three-day tournament on campus, No. 5-ranked Concordia (Calif.) defeated Northwest University (Wash.) 3-0 in the early contest.
The two Concordia schools with top-five rankings will face each other at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Vanguard will face Northwest in a Saturday affair.
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