The Aurora University Spartans women's soccer team hosted the Falcons from Concordia University Wisconsin in the 2014 NACC Tournament Championship at Vago Field on
Saturday. After taking an early lead, AU then saw the lead evaporate in the second half before heroic late game efforts from AU junior
Nicci Bermudes game the top-seeded Spartans a 3-2 win.
Just over a minute into the game, 1:29 to be exact, Spartan forward
Lorelei Ritzert played a ball out of the air toward the box where Bermudes gained control. Bermudes created some space and fired a shot past the goalkeeper into the bottom left of the goal to take an early 1-0 lead.
The Falcons looked to answer 10 minutes later as a free kick was played into the box. Falcon forward Anna Hirssig had a perfect opportunity to tie the game but headed the ball wide of the goal.
Just over midway through the half, the Spartans would add to their lead. Bermudes struck again as she settled a strong corner kick from senior
Brittany Roydhouse before guiding the ball off of the upper part of the right post and in to make it a 2-0 Spartan lead.
Play through one half seemed to be even despite the score. Concordia had eight shots in the first compared to Aurora's seven and each goalkeeper recorded one save.
The Falcons would break through in the second half as Hirssig redeemed herself on her second header opportunity at 60:24 to pull her team within one goal. Just over six minutes later Hirssig struck again on another header. This time she took a cross and buried the ball in the back of the net to tie it up at 2-2 with 24:20 to play.
Both teams battled down to the very end but Bermudes and the Spartans found a way to get it done in the final minutes. As the final minute approached, Bermudes controlled the ball once again off of a corner. She dribbled the ball towards the middle of the box before ripping a missile into the back of the net to give the Spartans a 3-2 lead with 1:15 on the game clock. This gave Bermudes a hat trick on the day but more importantly, the Spartans would hold on to win the 2014 NACC Tournament.
With the win, the AU women's soccer (17-3-1) won the NACC Tournament Championship and will make the programs 11th NCAA appearance and sixth in a row. AU will play in the 2014 NCAA Division III Championships as the complete field will be announced by the NCAA on
Monday, November 10 at 12:00 p.m. on NCAA.com.
