|
|
NCAA women's tournament Weimer strikes three times; Penn State rallies to down Texas A&M 4-1.
Penn State (22-0-1) will host No. 10 Santa Clara (15-6-2) next weekend in the quarterfinals. SCU rallied in the second half to edge visiting 16th-ranked Boston College 2-1 this afternoon. "We haven't been (to the quarterfinals) since my sophomore year and obviously we have a ways to go," Weimer said. "Last year (a second-round NCAA elimination) is really fueling us now. We knew what it was like to lose early on." PSU coach Paula Wilkins (100-14-7, .855) reached a milestone with here 100th career coaching victory, but not before the Nittany Lions had to rebound from their first halftime deficit this season. "Everybody was pretty confident. Everybody was pretty optimistic about the game," Wilkins said. "We weren't down on ourselves and we were ready to go out in the second half and play hard for 45 minutes. . . I'm glad I was able to accomplish (the milestone) with this team because they're very special." PSU outshot the Aggies 28-6, 13-2 in the first half, but still trailed 1-0 at intermission. The Nittany Lions finally broke through on their 18th shot. Freshman midfielder Allie Long slotted a ball into the penalty area for Weimer who touched it to red-shirt freshman midfielder Zoe Bouchelle. Bouchelle's shot from six yards out went across the frame and caught the top right corner of the net to pull PSU even at 1-1 with 54:22 elapsed. "I wasn't frustrated. I knew we would get one eventually if we just kept plugging away and kept shooting," Wilkins said. "It was good we were getting our chances anyway. I would have been more concerned if we weren't getting any chances at all." The game remained tied until the closing 18 minutes. Bouchelle fed Weimer who weaved through the Aggies defense to go one-on-one against senior goalkeeper Kati Jo Spisak. As Spisak charged to the penalty spot, Weimer lofted a shot over her head to make it 2-1 at 72:36.
"The girl (Pfister) went in for the tackle and she got the ball, but it came back out, and I jumped over her and got through," Weimer said. " After the Aggies were called for a foul inside their box with 15 minutes to play, Spisak stopped Weimer's penalty kick. "I'm mad about the PK. (Spisak) scared me," Weimer said with a chuckle. "I've known her for awhile. She stared right into my eyes. She got me, I'm afraid to admit." Weimer, however, was not to be denied her fourth career hat trick. She headed a cross from freshman forward Sheree Gray into the right side-netting for a 4-1 bulge at 87:17. "There really wasn't anyone marking me," Weimer said. Weimer has 31 goals and trails only Portland striker Sinclair, who has 37, in NCAA Division I. With 90 goals and 32 assists, Weimer has 212 points, four behind former teammate Christie Welsh, who had 216 from 1999-2002. Texas A&M (18-4-2) had a couple of dangerous scoring opportunities early and went ahead 1-0 off a set piece at 18:40. Junior defender Linda Pierson sent the free kick into the left side of the box where sophomore forward Melissa Garey settled the ball, turned and buried her shot into the top near corner of the net. "I'm proud of my players for what was a very good run," A&M coach G Guerrieri said. "We talk about whenever you come to a point in the season when it is over, you want to go out against someone who is a better team, and I thought Penn State was the better team today. "We took some risks in our numbers in defense because we wanted to see if we could hold the ball and possess the ball in the attack, and we weren't able to do that. We couldn't keep the ball in any kind of sustained attack and it just made it to where the game became one of us defending and not being able to counter as well as we can." |
