BGSU women’s soccer (10-2-9, 5-1-8) survived and advanced against Miami (OH) (11-5-3, 8-2-3) in a 4-3 penalty kick-decided Mid-American Conference (MAC) semifinal match at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday, punching their ticket to the conference championship match.
The Orange and Brown came into the MAC tournament as an injury-bugged sixth-seed, and with the additions of multiple players returning from injury within the last few weeks, the Falcons were able to push their way to the conference championship.
This is Bowling Green’s first championship appearance since the Falcons had won four straight MAC titles from 2018 to 2021.
Throughout the first three matches of the MAC tournament, each one has made it through regulation play and has been taken to at least double overtime, with both the BGSU vs. Miami (OH) and Kent State vs. Ball State games coming down to penalty kicks.
Similar to the quarterfinal matchup between BGSU and Buffalo, the shots were kept to a minimum, with four shots for the Falcons and six for the RedHawks.
The pivotal moments of the semifinals match started when the first yellow card was handed out to Miami’s freshman forward Caroline Mortonson with 23 minutes left in regulation.
The energy picked up following the first card, with multiple more cards being assessed and plenty of aggressive fouls. Even with the energy and aggression being increased, the officiating crew continued to let the girls play through most of the match.
The two 10-minute overtime periods featured similar outcomes to regulation play, with no goal being scored. This then led to a penalty kick shootout between the two teams.
Taking the five penalty kicks for Bowling Green were junior midfielder Emme Butera, redshirt freshman midfielder Minah Syam, junior forward Emma Stransky, graduate student forward Ellie Pool and junior defender Gabby Lamparty.
The Falcons’ first four attempts found the back of the net against junior goalkeeper Dominique Popa, while Lamparty would have her shot blocked.
Composed and confident, sophomore goalkeeper Payton O’Malley stepped into goal and protected the Orange and Brown net on both the first and last Miami penalty shots to help the Falcons advance.
Bowling Green will head back down to the Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus on Friday, Nov. 7, to face the winner of Western Michigan vs Ball State in the MAC Championship match.
