TLU Women's Soccer season comes to close in SCAC quarterfinal

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- Texas Lutheran closed out its 2018 season with a 2-2 tie in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Championship quarterfinal after the University of Dallas advanced on penalty kicks, 4-2.

TLU, the tournament's No. 3 seed, ended the year with an overall mark of 8-5-4. 

Sixth-seed Dallas (3-10-4) moves on to the SCAC Championship semifinal. The Crusaders will face No. 2 seed Southwestern at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Trinity University's Paul McGinlay Field.

In the Friday match, also at McGinlay Field, the Bulldogs fell behind 1-0 in the first half and 2-1 in the second half but battled back each time to tie.

Bailey Nimtz (New Braunfels/Canyon) curved in a corner kick for the first Bulldog goal. Nimtz's goal came in the second half, at the 54:23 mark of the match.

Nimtz would answer again for TLU in the 82nd minute. With TLU trailing 2-1, Nimtz knocked home a penalty kick. The penalty kick came after a Dallas foul in the box.

TLU had several good scoring chances late in regulation and in each of the overtime sessions, but the team could not find the back of the net.

In the two overtimes, TLU out-shot Dallas 6-2 and had a 3-0 edge in shots on goal.

For the match, TLU out-shot Dallas 29-15 and had as many shots on goal (15) as Dallas had shots. Dallas keeper Olivia Severson made 13 saves in 120 minutes of action. TLU keeper Stephanie Barrientos (Mission/Sharyland) collected seven saves.

In the penalty kick shootout, Dallas took a quick 1-0 lead and never trailed.

Barrientos made a save on the fourth Dallas attempt to keep TLU alive, but Severson made a save on the very next TLU attempt to put Dallas one successful penalty kick from victory.

With Dallas leading 3-2 in penalties, Elisa Duran sent her squad to the SCAC semifinal round with a conversion.

The match was the final TLU soccer contest for three Bulldog seniors: Aubrie Wells(Houston/Lutheran South Academy), Jessica Coronado (McAllen/Memorial), and Leslie Flores(McAllen Memorial).