On Wednesday night at Lumberjack Stadium, Northern Arizona University shut out Sacramento State in the quarterfinals of the Big Sky Conference women’s soccer tournament in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Flagstaff is hosting the tournament for the first time since 2010 when the Lumberjacks won the regular season championship.
The teams faced each other in September at Sacramento State, where NAU lost 1-0.
NAU was the No. 4 seed coming into Wednesday’s matchup, while Sacramento State held the No. 5 seed.
It was a chilly evening, as students, player’s family members, and local Flagstaff residents filled the stands clad in beanies and winter coats for Wednesday’s game under the lights.
The game started with both teams warming up and trying to maintain possession.
After a corner kick for the Hornets, NAU goalkeeper Trinity Corcoran, made a stop on a shot from just outside the box.
A few minutes later, Sacramento State’s forward Teysha-Ray Spinney-Kuahuia would win a loose ball battle with an NAU defender, but her shot on goal sailed just over the crossbar.
NAU defender Olivia Bos made an excellent touch on the ball to send a perfect Hornet shot out of bounds.
Sacramento State continued to close in and earn opportunities on goal forcing back-to-back corner kicks with 28 minutes left in the first half.
Trinity Corcoran came up huge when she made a fearless stop with just under 10 minutes left in the half. A Sacramento State forward left the NAU defender in her dust as she closed in on the goal, but one poor touch allowed Corcoran to make a diving stop.
As the first half came to an end, both teams’ energy and aggression picked up, but the score would remain 0-0 at the break.
Head coach Alan Berrios spoke about his teams slow first half start.
“Kudos to Sacramento State for playing such a great first half—really put us on our heels. Their #10 really put a number on us in the first half and you know we were lucky to go into halftime 0-0.”
NAU would start the second half strong, coming out aggressively and taking a shot on goal just 3 minutes into the final half.
At the 55th minute, Sacramento’s goalkeeper Izzy Palmatier committed a penalty in the box and NAU’s Josie Novak scored on the ensuing PK.
The Lumberjacks gained confidence and momentum with the 1-0 lead, and when a loose ball was won by NAU junior Holly Hunter, she put it in the back of the net for another NAU goal.
Hunter spoke after the game about dealing with the pressure of a win or go home match.
“I think I played in a lot of super competitive championship games so this is no different. I need to look at this game as like we need to go out there and we need to win, so it’s no different then how I approach every other game,” Hunter said.
Even though the Hornets were trying to prevent further damage, NAU’s attack was relentless and after a perfectly placed assist by senior Josie Novak, Hunter would sweep the ball in for her second goal of the night and a 3-0 victory for the Lumberjacks.
NAU will move on to face Montana, and head coach Alan Berrios spoke about his team’s Oct. 12 loss to the Grizzlies.
“Control the emotions. I think the emotions got in the way of the game a little bit, but we learned. We learned from that lesson—and again…tale of two halves. They played really well in the first half and outplayed us. We played great in the second half and we didn’t deserve the loss in that game by any means. I thought a 1-1 draw would’ve been right on and we’re looking forward to playing them,” Berrios said.
Hunter also shared her thoughts on the upcoming game against Montana.
“I think we just got to listen to what the coaches have to say. They do a lot of scouting and a lot of preparation to help us be ready for Montana so I think the team needs to be mentally prepared—just working as a team, I think that’ll help us going forward.”
With the win on Wednesday, Northern Arizona advances to the semifinals to play No. 1 seed Montana on Nov. 3 at 6 p.m.
