MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Baylor girls’ soccer team advanced to the Division II-AA championship game for the first time since 2011, edging Ensworth 1-0 in a semifinal match Friday that went to a penalty-kicks shootout.
The Lady Red Raiders will square off with Briarcrest (17-2-1) in tonight’s 7:30 EDT title match. Briarcrest edged GPS 3-2 in another match that went to penalty kicks. It was a rematch of last year’s state final that GPS won.
The Lady Tigers (18-2-2), looking to avenge their only regular-season defeat – a 2-1 loss to Baylor on Sept. 22 – tallied six shots in the 110 minutes of regulation and extra time, but not a single one found its way by Lady Red Raiders goalkeeper Peyton Randolph.
“We attacked well and were able to get the ball to our dangerous players on the outside and create opportunities within the final third,” Ensworth coach Danny Wright said. “We just didn’t have that last little bit you need in a game like this.”
Ensworth didn’t fare much better in penalty kicks, either, as Randolph, a freshman, turned away two of the three shots she faced. Baylor (12-4-3), meanwhile, connected on all four of its PKs, as freshman Ara Rhodes fired a laser into the top left corner to seal the victory.
“Their goalkeeper came up huge,” Wright said. “We played hard and it was an exciting game. (We’re) just unhappy with the outcome.”
In the other semifinal, GPS scored first on a rebound goal by Lane Lawrence with an assist credited to Keyle Synder. That came 14:40 into the match, but Julia Perrusquia equalized at 20:10. Briarcrest’s Kaley Smithmier and GPS’s Samantha Jackson scored within two minutes of each other in the second half, and the Memphis-area team followed the scoreless overtimes with a 4-1 edge in PKs.