University of Texas at Dallas

ABILENE, TX (11.08.09) – The UT Dallas women's soccer team made a dramatic run back to its familiar place in the American Southwest Conference championship game, but again saw its run of good fortune come up short Sunday as Hardin-Simmons prevailed as ASC champions ffor the seventh straight year with a 3-0 win.

Nationally-ranked HSU took an early 2-0 lead, outshooting the Comets 15-0 in the first half; then added a second-half insurance goal despite an energized UTD squad that defensively kept the match from getting completely out of hand after fallng behind. (For a detailed report, view a GAME BLOG kept throughout the title match, or view the BOXSCORE).

That UTD made it back to the title game for the seventh time since 2002 was an unlikely accomplishment in itself. The Comets, who qualified for the tournament as the No. 6 seed and didn't do that until the last weekend of the regular season, needed a pair of shootout tiebreaker victories to get past double-overtime ties in both the quarterfinals and semifinals of the tournament, being played on HSU's home field.

The Comets (who finish the year at 7-8-6), defeated Mississippi College 4-1 in a best-of-five penalty shot shootout Friday after tying that game on a miraculous last-second score in regulation; then had to go to 11-10 to knock off second-seeded UT-Tyler in the semifinals Saturday after playing to a 0-0 double-overtime tie in that match.

Goalkeeper Andrea Jones, who made a number of saves in the shootouts, led UTD's selections to the All-Tournament team along with seniors Kristina Kinner and Emily George.

SEMIFINALS: UT DALLAS 0, UT TYLER 0 (2 OT) (Boxscore)
(Comets Advance In Shootout 11-10)

UTD ended the tournament for the second-seeded Patriots by outlasting UTT in a scoreless 110-minute match and then a shootout that went a heart-stopping 28 shots, including 18 in a "sudden death" scenario.

Freshman Emily Hokanson scored the the deciding penalty kick for the Comets on her second trip through the order, then goalkeeper Andrea Jones made an athletic save on a shot to the upper left corner to win the tiebreaker for the Comets.

UTD had mustered very little offense during regulation, giving up a 13-7 shot advantage to the Patriots, who forced starting keeper Katelyn Flory into 5 saves while UTD managed nothing on goal. UTT even had a 6-2 advantage on corner kicks.

But the score was still tied 0-0 after regulation thanks to a heroic defensive effort, and UTD withstood another Patriot charge in two overtime periods. UTT had six shots and put two more on net, but Flory responded each time.

UTD crept out to a 3-0 lead in the first five-shot shootout scenario on goals from Kelly Fields, Samantha Sang and Emily George, but Hokanson and Makanani both were stopped late and the Patriots tied that set at 3-3. From there, it went into "sudden death" with UTT holding the advantage of shooting last each round. The Comets made six straight with the Patriots matching each time. At 9-9, the Comets opened the door for UTT to end the showdown when Sang missed her second shot, but UTT also missed. George and Hokanson then converted before UTT missed their final shot.

QUARTERFINALS: UTD 0, MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE 0 (2OT) (boxscore)
(UTD advances with 4-1 shootout win)

The Comets tied the game in regulation on a dramatic last-second goal from Katie Makanani, then got goals from Kellie Fields, Samantha Sang, Emily George and Emily Hokanson, to win the shootout 4-1.

After a scoreless first half, UTD took the first lead of the quarterfinal match just 10 minutes into the second period when former goalkeeper Andrea Jones, now playing in the field, took a nice cross from Brittany Ansel and punched it in at 55:46. The Comets held the 1-0 lead for just 10 minutes before MC's Kimberley Kaim tied the score on a carom off the post. She then scored her second goal with just seven minutes left in regulation to give MC a presumably safe 2-1 lead.

But with time running out in regulation, Makanani got the game-tying goal at 89:56 off a last-second UTD corner kick and sent the game into overtime. The two teams battled scorelessly for two 10-minute periods before deciding which team would advance with a tie-breaking shootout of five penalty kicks each.

Freshmen Fields and Sang gave UTD a 2-0 lead in the penalty kicks after the Lady Choctaws could not get anything past Jones, who had moved back in the goal. George then made it 3-0 before MC finally connected on one shot to make it 3-1, but Hokanson's conversion gave the Comets an insurmountable 4-1 lead and the celebration began.