UWSP Women's Soccer

Unfortunately, for the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point women's soccer team on Saturday, it's mistake allowed Tufts University to move onto the championship match of the NCAA Division III championship.

Lynn Cooper's goal with 3:35 remaining in the first overtime allowed the Jumbos to sneak past a resilient Pointer team 1-0. The victory allows Tufts (18-3-1) to take on the College of New Jersey, which defeated Trinity (Texas) 1-0 in overtime.

Much like their quarterfinal game against Salisbury State (Md.) last weekend, the Pointers had to battle difficult wind conditions all day long, along with a capacity crowd of about 1,000.

Despite having the wind at their backs for the majority of the first half, UW-Stevens Point was unable to push a goal past Tufts' goalkeeper Randee McArdle.

"We didn't score that first half when we had the wind," Pointer head coach Sheila Miech said. "I guess we didn't have any finishing power today."

With the Jumbos having the wind to their advantage in the second half, the host school had a number of golden opportunities to take the lead. Tufts first chance came with 34 minutes remaining in the second half. A mad scramble directly in front of the net took place and Pointer goalkeeper Abby Rabinovitz found herself out of the net. Luckily, for UW-Stevens Point, a shot at an empty net was deflected and sailed over the goal.

The ensuing corner kick was placed perfectly, but Rabinovitz made a sprawling save to keep the game scoreless.

Nine minutes later, the Pointers were able to avert disaster once again. Another corner gave the Jumbos and opportunity in the box, but the ensuing shot hit off the crossbar. The ball stayed in play and a barrage of shots headed toward Rabinovitz and her teammates, but despite coming numerous times within a foot of the lead goal, Tufts was remarkably turned away once again.

In spite of playing the majority of the final 45 minutes on the defensive, the Pointers were able to force overtime. It looked as though UW-Stevens Point was going to make it through the opening 15-minute overtime period and regain the wind advantage, but disaster struck with just over four minutes remaining.

Pointer Mickey Jacob was called for a foul near the top left corner of the goal box, giving Tufts a free kick. On the resulting kick, Rabinovitz appeared to have controlled the shot on goal, but lost control of the ball. Cooper crashed the net hard, running into Rabinovitz, and was able to put away the game-winner.

"I came out and I had it, and I dropped it," Rabinovitz said of the initial shot. "I went to grab it again and the girl came after me. Usually they call that, but I guess not here."

Miech said her team was just hoping to get through the first extra session and make it into the second overtime when the Pointers would have the wind at their backs again.

"When you go into the overtime, you go into the wind again," Miech said. "We were just hoping for the second 15 minutes. I was a little disappointed with the end. I thought our keeper had control of the ball and she was tripped."

For the game, Tufts owned a slight 17-13 advantage in shots on goal, but had numerous more quality chances than UW-Stevens Point.

The loss ended the Pointers' season with a 22-5 record and snapped their nation's longest winning streak at 16 games. Despite the loss, Rabinovitz stated that she and her teammates were proud of their accomplishments this season.

"Obviously I wanted to win," she said. "But all three years before we made it to the tournament, but we lost in the first round.

"Losing this game is really hard, but I'm really proud of how we played and we left it all on the field. As a senior, you can't ask for anything more than going to the final four, except for winning it."

Along with Rabinovitz, the game concluded the Pointer careers of Marie Muhvic, Jennifer Schmit and Margaret Domka.