The Florida State Seminoles women's soccer team can visit the semifinals of the NCAA Women's National Championship Tournament for the first time since 2015 when they had finished as one of the last four teams for five consecutive seasons, including winning the College Cup title in 2014.
After beating Loyola Chicago and South Florida, the Seminoles took down Southern California in the third round, but they needed penalty kicks to advance. With the win, they move on to the NCAA quarterfinals to face Penn State.
After giving up a goal during the 36th minute and going into the intermission down 1-0, Dallas Dorosy tied up the game with a tip in off a corner-kick during the 64th minute. The 1-1 tie held at the end of the second half, then through both overtimes periods. The same thing happened when these teams played in August, but the match ended in a tie.
Both teams made their first four kicks in the shootout. Anna Patten, Natalia Kuikka, Gabby Carle, and Jaelin Howel were the players to succeed on their attempts. With the shootout tied at four, Carolin Jeffers made the first save in the shootout to give the Seminoles a chance for the win before Yujie Zhao came up big with the game-winning goal to send FSU to the quarterfinals.
Zhao was second on the team in goals with seven and points with 18. Dorosy was just behind her with six goals on the season as well as 14 points.
During 110 minutes of game play, Jeffers made three saves and allowed just 1 of 10 shots-on-goal to get past her. During the regular season, Jeffers played in six games, totaling just over 417 minutes of game action and finished the season with four goals allowed and seven saves with a 4-0-1 record.
Their next game is on Friday against the Nittany Lions at home in the FSU Soccer Complex. In 2012, Florida State lost to Penn State in the semifinals 2-1 in overtime.
