<ong>Men shutout Tommies 3-0, will host Mac in tomorrow’s title
On Wednesday, the men’s soccer team played host to the St. Thomas Tommies in the semi-final round of the MIAC playoffs. Although St. Thomas came in as the #4 seed in the tournament, the game was highly anticipated, since the only regular season match between the Tommies and the Knights ended in a double overtime thriller in which the Knights escaped with a 1-0 win. This time, Carleton needed no last-second heroics, beating St. Thomas 3-0 to advance to the MIAC finals.
The Knights began the matchup by dominating possession and creating a significant portion of the first half scoring opportunities. The Knights took the lead midway through the first half off of a penalty kick by Ross Hamilton ’10. The Knights continued to apply consistent offensive pressure throughout the half, but went into the half with only a 1-0 lead.
The second half opened with a furious wave of attacks by the Tommies. The Knights defense, however, was able to withstand every Tommie threat and eventually the Knights were able to double their lead when Tim Wills ‘12 led a streaking Wes Elfman ’11 towards the Tommie goal. Elfman was able to take a touch around the Tommie goalkeeper and blast in his 8th goal of the season. Just minutes later, Wills notched his second assist of the game when he found a free Ryan Cammarota ’12 on the far post. Cammarota calmly collected the pass and slotted in the third goal of the game for the Knights. The Knights were able to maintain the shutout and ended the game with a 3-0 win.
With the win the Knights bring their overall record to 15-4 and more importantly advance to the MIAC championship game on Saturday on Bell Field at 1 pm. Carleton will take on Macalester, whom they defeated 3-0 at home on September 30.
The team completed regular season action last Sunday with a disappointing loss to St. Olaf. Although the Knights had already clinched the conference crown and the number one seed in the MIAC playoffs, the game still had important implications for hopes of an NCAA tournament bid. After the game was delayed a day because of poor field conditions, the Knights and the Oles eventually took the field of Sunday afternoon. After St. Olaf took a 2-0 lead midway through the second half, the Knights finally began to apply strong offensive pressure on the Ole defense. Despite numerous chances in the second half, the Knights were not able to find the back of the Ole net and dropped only their fourth game of the season by a final score of 0-2. The loss dropped the Knights out of the national standings and also two spots to #5 in the regional rankings.
Women top Concordia in PKs, clinch date with Scots
Nearing the finale of a season plagued with injury, the Carleton women’s soccer team is nowhere near calling it quits. Tuesday afternoon the Knights clinched a spot in the MIAC playoff finals and a chance to earn a berth into the NCAA tournament.
After enduring the five-hour trek to Moorhead, Minn., the Knights stepped out against Concordia College with total confidence. Although the Cobbers were ranked seventh in the nation, and boast ed an impressive season record of 16-0-1, the Knights played with utmost tenacity, demonstrating that they weren’t one bit phased by the Cobber’s previous success.
“After handing the Cobbers their first tie of the season two weeks ago, we knew coming in that we were a team they were nervous to face,” captain Merrit Swain ’11 stated.
The Cobbers scored first, off a corner kick with 27 minutes left in the second half. The Knights responded with a torrent of shots in the Cobbers’ final third but remained scoreless until late in the second half. With five minutes left Marlena Hartman-Filson ’13 struck a ball at the top of the eighteen that hit the bottom of the cross bar, bouncing down and visibly into the goal and back out. Unfortunately the referee called the ball out, denying the Knights the goal. Down to the final minutes of the game, Swain slotted a ball to Nicole Tomita ’12 at the top of the eighteen and with a quick fake Tomita placed the ball perfectly into the corner of the goal.
At the end of two hard fought overtimes the game came down to penalty kicks. The Knights five chosen shooters included Tomita, Hartman-Filson, Elizabeth Arakaki ’11, Lily VanderStaay ’12, and Megan Milligan ’11. The Knights shooters performed exceptionally finishing three of the four kicks taken but the star of the shootout was undoubtedly Carleton goalkeeper Kate Trenerry ’11.
With unbelievable accuracy, Trenerry predicted every shot taken by the Cobber players, conceding only one goal.
“Kate outwitted Concorida in the shootout, and that coupled with her awing athletic ability and goal keeping skills took away any and every hope the Cobbers had,” captain Mia Zutz ’10 said.
When asked about her strategy heading to the kicks Trenerry said, “ I was just focusing on the ball and the footwork of the shooters to gage where they would aim; the support from my teammates at the half field was incredible also.”
The Knights will face Macalester in the MIAC playoff championship on Saturday night at 7:30 in Saint Paul. They will look for revenge after falling 1-0 on the Scots’ home turf on September 30.