Box
Score
Game
Program
St. Mary's City, Md. - Junior forward
Kaitlin Boswell (Baltimore, Md./Friends School)
notched the most important goal of her career in the 66th minute as
Boswell's tally helped the St. Mary's College of
Maryland women's soccer team capture the program's first-ever
Capital Athletic Conference (CAC) championship with a 1-0 victory
over York (Pa.) College Saturday afternoon.
After getting by a York defensive tackle,
Boswell picked up her dribble and went deeper in
the box before sailing a high chip over the head of freshman
goalkeeper Sarah Spanarkel (Toms River, N.J./Toms
River North) for what proved to be the lone game-winner.
The second-seeded Seahawks (12-2-3) were making only the
program's second appearance in the CAC title match. Their
first trip to the championship game was two years ago in head coach
Brianne Weaver's first year at the helm of the
Seahawks. That season, SMCM dropped a 4-0 decision to
Salisbury University, who claimed their third CAC crown in 2006.
With today's 1-0 win, St. Mary's earned the conference's
automatic bid to the 2008 NCAA Division III Women's Soccer
Tournament. The tournament bracket announcement will be
streamed online on Monday, November 10 at noon on NCAA.com.
The fourth-seeded Spartans (11-7-2) advanced to today's
championship with a dramatic 2-1 win over fifth-seeded University
of Mary Washington in the first round and with a 3-1 shootout
victory at top-seeded Salisbury in the semifinals after playing the
Sea Gulls to a 1-1 double overtime draw.
York had two good opportunities to get on the scoreboard - one
in each half. Their first opportunity came in the 31st minute
when sophomore Steph Mergler (Street, Md./North
Harford) blasted in a shot from outside the box that senior goalie
Marie Oben (Glenn Dale, Md./St. Mary's, Annapolis)
tipped over the crossbar. The next one came with 6:30 left in
the game when sophomore Ali Jones (Riva,
Md./Archbishop Spalding) took a hard, 10-yard shot that
Oben quickly reacted to for the save.
The Spartans posted the advantage in both offensive categories
as YCP outshot the Seahawks, 12-9, and earned nine corner kicks to
SMCM's three.
YCP will now have to wait for a possible at-large berth into the
NCAA Tournament.
Oben finished the contest with five stops while
Spanarkel came up with four.
