SOUTH REGION FINAL
The West Florida Argonauts are no stranger to the late rounds of the NCAA tournament - the Argos were national champions in 2012 and national runners-up in 2013. But they came into this year's tournament as a No. 6 seed in the South Region, and Sunday's 2-1 win over 2-seed Saint Leo sends the Argos to the Sweet 16 as the lowest seeded team to make it that far this year.
West Florida will face Barry in the Southeast Region final.
West Florida (18-4-0) got two first half goals from Emily Vogler and held Sunshine State Conference Player of the Year and league goal leader Arielle Kabangu without a shot.Â
UWF is now 12-1 since the start of October and has outscored opponents 35-2 over that stretch.Â
West Florida will face Barry, which scored two goals in three minutes in an amazing come-from-behind 2-1 win over Rollins on Sunday in the other South Region semi. Barry (11-3-2) was down 1-0 and on the verge of elimination in the 88th minute when Linnea Kogsta scored the late equalizer to force overtime. Then, just 34 seconds into overtime the Bucs got the game winner from Shannell McDonald to put them through to the Sweet 16.
The win came after a smart formation change by Barry coach Sarah Dacey after conceding the first goal. The Bucs went from one attacker up top to three, and it paid off.Â
"Linnea's goal was pure effort, and she really wanted to score for her team," Dacey said on the Barry website. "Then in overtime, Shannell, another senior, sealed away the win and it was just a great effort all around."
The Bucs have also been hot down the stretch, going 7-1-1 since Oct. 1 and holding a scoring edge of 15-5 with five shutouts.
SOUTHEAST REGION FINAL
Top-seeded Columbus State rolled to an easy 5-2 win over Peach Belt foe Armstrong State, edging a step closer to returning to the national championship game, where the Cougars lost last year to Grand Valley State. The win sets up a rematch in the Sweet 16 with another Peach Belt rival, North Georgia, which won in the other regional semifinal.Â
Georgia Barton had a hat trick for CSU, which jumped on Armstrong early with a fourth minute goal from Mandy Janowitz and added one in the 11th minute by Olivia Jarrell.
Armstrong recovered from those two early goals, though, and managed to tie the game in the 30th minute after goals from Martha Trimbach and Michelle Allen.
But Barton got two first half goals and finished her hat trick in the final minute of the game to send the Cougars through to the round of 16.
North Georgia had a tougher time Sunday, beating Carson-Newman 4-3 to advance to face CSU in the regional final.Â
The Nighthawks scored three goals in the final 15 minutes to come from behind for the win and put UNG through to the Sweet 16 for the first time ever.
Things looked bad for North Georgia (15-2-3), which was down 3-1 in the 75th minute when senior defender Jessica Allen scored on a header for the Nighthawks to put the game seemingly within reach. Allen then scored again with another header to tie the game just seven minutes later.
Then, just as it seemed the two teams would head to overtime, Rachel VanHorn got her second goal of the game and 21st of the season, chipping the Carson-Newman goalkeeper to give the Nighhawks their first lead of the day with just a minute to play in regulation.Â
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The semifinals and championship games will take place December 1 and 3 at Swope Park in Kansas City, Mo.
Important Links
| Information |
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| NCAA Digital Tournament Program |
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| Interactive Bracket |
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| NCAA National Statistics |
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