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NCAA women's tournament Notre Dame returns to Final Four, but needs penalty kicks to get by Nebraska after 1-1 tie.LINCOLN, Neb. (Sunday, November 28, 1999) -- Notre Dame is headed back to the Final Four after a one-year hiatus.After 60 minutes of sudden death overtime did not resolve a 1-1 draw, the fifth-ranked Irish eliminated No. 4 Nebraska 4-3 in the sixth round of penalty-kick tiebreaker in the NCAA tournament quarterfinal at NU's Abbott Sports Complex. Notre Dame (20-3-1) advanced to a Friday national semifinal against No. 1 Santa Clara in San Jose, Calif., while the Huskers were denied a first Final Four appearance and ended 22-1-2. The Irish, who saw their season end in the quarterfinals in 1998, will make their fifth visit to the Final Four in six years, including the taking the NCAA title in 1995. The game marked the longest in Irish history, surpassing the 1995 NCAA final won by the Notre Dame 1-0 in a third overtime period over Portland, a game that lasted 125:31. The result will go into the record books as a draw. But in the tiebreaker, junior Kelly Lindsey converted Notre Dame's sixth penalty and then watched senior goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene save Amy Walsh's attempt for the Huskers. "Nebraska is a great team and probably deserves to be (in the Final Four) just as much as we do, but it come down to that last shot and LaKeysia made a great save," said Lindsey, a native of nearby Omaha. "If it wouldn't have been for her, it wouldn't have been for me. Coach asked who wanted to take the sixth penalty kick and I threw my hand up without even thinking, so I definitely wasn't nervous. I was just glad to put it in." "I saw my team jumping up and down and I thought, 'Man, I got to save this,' " said Beene. "I didn't want to let them down." Senior midfielder Jenny Streiffer scored at 1:30 when she converted a through-ball from sophomore Mia Sarkesian to give the Irish an early 1-0 lead. With 70 goals and 71 assists in her Irish career, Streiffer joined North Carolina's Mia Hamm as the only players in NCAA Division I history to record at least 70 goals and 70 assists. Nebraska responded to pull even at 1-1 at 17:07 when Kelly Rheem knotted the game, the recipient of a left-side service from Jenny Benson over two defenders. "This is one way you hate to lose," Benson said. "Any soccer player would rather play until they can't move, than lose like this. They are a great team, and you can't take anything away from them. It was a great soccer match between two physical, good teams, but the luck didn't run our way. We lose a couple of really great seniors, but we will bounce back and go for it next year." What followed was 2 hours, 12 minutes and 53 seconds of scoreless play. Both teams then had a number of scoring opportunities, but each goalkeeper came up with a number of plays to keep the game tied. "I thought both teams had some good chances to finish it off," said Nebraska coach John Walker. "It was an excellent game between two well-matched teams." Huskers junior goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc finished with 10 saves, while Beene stopped seven shots, including coming off her line to smother a breakaway with 32 minutes left in the second half. Notre Dame finished with a 29-16 advantage in shots, 13-6 in the four overtime periods. Nebraska had 15 corner kicks to nine for the Irish. "It has been an extremely gratifying year for me, following a coach like Chris Petrucelli," said Notre Dame coach Randy Waldrum, in his first year in South Bend. "It hasn't sunk in yet. It feels like a relief that we got to the semifinals because that is the standard that has been set and it's the expectation at Notre Dame. When I get a chance to think about it, it's going to be really exciting." Nebraska won the coin toss before the tiebreaker and elected to kick second. Streiffer took the first kick and converted in the lower left corner of the net. Beene then saved Kelly Rheem's first shot for the Huskers in the lower right corner. Irish senior Jenny Heft put Notre Dame up 2-0 with a shot into the upper left corner. Nebraska's Meghan Anderson moved the shootout to 2-1 with a shot to the lower right. After Notre Dame junior All-American Anne Makinen had her kick bounce off the left post, Husker Christine Latham skimmed a shot off the left post to even things at 2-2. After LeBlanc saved Monica Gonzalez's shot to the lower left, the Cornhuskers had the chance to close things out by netting its two remaining attempts. Sharolta Nonen's shot, however sailed high over the center of the net. Irish senior defender Jen Grubb found the upper right corner for a 3-2 Irish edge. Benson kept Nebraska alive with a shot into the lower right for a 3-3 tie after the first five kicks. "We felt very good about our play today and our game plan," Waldrum said. "We definitely dodged some bullets on corner kicks because they are so good on set pieces. Nebraska has had such a great year. I think the game really dictated the quality of the two teams. We battled through a lot of different situations through the course of the game and four overtimes that I think shows the character of our team. The last thing we said in the locker room was, 'Whatever it takes.' " |
