And MIAC Tournament Champions As Well

MOORHEAD, Minn. (11/03/12)—Concordia put an exclamation point on their MIAC regular-season championship by turning the "double" and claiming the conference postseason title as well. The Cobbers outlasted Augsburg 7-6 in a penalty kick shootout after the teams battled to a 0-0 tie through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of sudden death overtime.

The shootout win gives the Cobbers the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. It will be Concordia's fourth straight trip to the national playoffs. The Cobbers have now won the MIAC postseason tournament four times in the past seven seasons.

The game goes into the record books as a tie. Concordia is now unbeaten in its last eight games and moves to 15-3-2 on the year. Augsburg, who was second in the conference in overall wins is now 12-5-3.  

Concordia had the majority of the play throughout the two 45-minuteregulation periods and then into overtime. The Cobbers wound up outshooting Augsburg 17-6 for the game, including 9-2 in shots on goal. The Auggies were most dangerous on counterattack situations and had several quality chances in overtime.

The Cobbers were unable to finish one of their many crossing attempts or combination plays through the middle of the field and were forced to roll the dice in the penalty kick shootout.

The penalty kick shootout unfolded in two different tales. The first seven shooters for both teams put on a penalty kick clinic while the final three for both squads could barely find the goal. Both teams wound up making four of their first five spot kicks to send it into a sudden-death situation. The Auggies missed their first kick while the Cobbers couldn't convert on their third kick.

With Augsburg going first, the teams then traded misses with the tension mounting with each errant kick. The 10^th Auggie kicker missed the frame which set the stage for freshman Sadie Hayes. Hayes went away from the placement principle of penalty kick taking and just hammered a low shot that beat the Augsburg keeper on the ground to her left.

The successful kick set off a celebration of the Cobber team and the die-hard fans that had watched almost three hours of soccer.

Concordia goalie Ali Nelson made two saves during the course of the game and then made two shootout saves to help CC earn the championship. Augsburg goalie Katie Gajewski stopped all nine shots she faced in 110 minutes of play. She almost made the save of the year when she dove full out to get a hand on Sarah Rounds' shootout shot but the ball hit the inside of the post and then bounced over the goal line.

The Cobbers will now wait until Monday, Nov. 5 at 12:30 p.m. to see where they will play in the NCAA Tournament.