NEWARK, DE -- The University of Delaware women’s soccer team defeated the College of William & Mary Tribe in a shootout in a quarterfinal match of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament Tuesday night at Delaware Mini-Stadium.

The game was tied 1-1 through regulation and the two overtime periods before sophomore Alli D’Amico’s (right) penalty kick in sudden death gave the Hens the win. Per NCAA rules, the match is officially a tie, with the Blue Hens winning 4-3 on penalty kicks. The third seeded Blue Hens advance to the CAA semifinals where they will take on the No. 2 seed Hofstra on Friday night at 8 p.m. at VCU’s Sports Backers Stadium.

The match was a scoreless struggle throughout most of the game until Delaware senior midfielder Melissa Kunisky’s shot banged off the left post and into the net with only 18:56 remaining. The Blue Hens (10-5-4) seemed to have the game in hand until Claire Zimmeck’s shot off of a free kick grazed off the hands of Delaware goalkeeper Lindsey Shover and just under the crossbar into the net with just 2 47 left.

The Tribe (7-4-9) carried the play through much of overtime, outshooting the Hens 5-1. The Tribe also held a 4-1 advantage in corner kicks in the extra session. Despite the consistent pressure, Shover needed to make only one save in the extra frames to keep the game going. She finished the match with seven saves while William & Mary’s Kellie Fenton made two saves for the Tribe.

At the conclusion of the overtimes, the teams squared off in a shootout which called for five shooters from each team to take an unhindered shot at the goal, and if the teams remained tied after five, the shootout would become sudden death.
Shover stopped Lydia Sturgis to start the shootout, which was followed by Jennifer Krepps giving the Blue Hens the lead. The teams then traded goals from the Tribe’s Abby Lauer and Delaware’s Mary Beth Creed, before Meredith Brown was stopped by Shover and Blue Hen freshman Dana Rodgers’ shot hit the post. Tribe standout freshman Zimmeck scored to give the Tribe the lead before Lauren Petchel rescued the Hens from the edge of elimination, thus concluding the five-on-five portion of the shootout. In the first sudden death round, Shover denied Jenny Purser before D’Amico’s shot evaded Fenton to propel the Hens to the conference semifinals.

The match marks the first time that the Blue Hen women’s soccer team has advanced to the CAA semifinals. The match also is the first shootout in program history.

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