The women’s soccer team’s path to the NCAA Division III Tournament has been with last-minute thrillers and historic victories, but on Saturday, their magic ran thin, losing to Westfield State in overtime.
Traveling more than four hours, the 12-4-5 Lions arrived in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Thursday night with aspirations to win it all, but instead found the end of the road putting an end to a monumental season—achieving the program’s first NEWMAC title and NCAA tournament appearance.
The match at Weiss Field started slow with the Lions and Owls trading possessions creating minimal scoring opportunities in the first 20 minutes. The rest of the first half of regulation time featured a couple shots on target from each team, but nothing that threatened the score.
It was all knotted up at halftime, but just a minute after play resumed, the Owls found the back of the net off the boot of Morgan Berthiaume to put Westfield up 1-0.
The Lions scraped for opportunities, consistently finding themselves in the Westfield penalty area but struggled to make the chances count.
Emerson continued to apply pressure and in the 82’ minute, they finally broke through. Sophomore Maddie Khaw powered a through pass down the left wing for junior Gina Lukoskie who blazed past any defenders and in stride crossed the ball into the box finding the left cleat of junior Simone-Barragan Shaw to equalize the match 1-1.
Once the 90 minutes of regulation was up, it was still even, sending the Lions to its second overtime of the postseason. Lined up for two 10-minute halves, each team headed back on to the pitch knowing one goal could very well be enough to win the game.
Emerson came out with fire, retaining the most of the possession, but it was Owl goalie Lauren Davis who stood in the way—Davis recorded seven saves in the match.
Just 30 seconds into the back half of overtime, the Owls received a throw-in which resulted in five passes ending with a finish by Westfield’s Delaney Parker. As the ball slid past a diving Emerson goalie Amara Schaub, the Lions would find themselves down again, this time with only nine minutes to tie the game.
The energy remained high for Emerson, but it wasn’t enough, and this time when the announcer counted down the last remaining 10 seconds, it would be the women’s soccer team heading home.
Emerson’s season came to a close, but not without making history and receiving multiple awards.
Sophomore defender Yoshiko Slater was named the NEWMAC Co-Defensive Player of the Year and Cali Bruce, Brittany Righetti, and Anna Swisher joined her on the All-Conference First Team. Barragan-Shaw and Schaub were named on the All-Conference Second Team and for coaches David Suvak, Kate Kohler, and Chris Connolly, they received NEWMAC Coaching Staff of the Year.
It wasn’t the grand prize of a NCAA championship, but the Lions can hang their heads high on a historic 2022 campaign.
