Women's Soccer Shoot Past Monks In GNAC Playoffs

The Suffolk University Women's Soccer team were victorious in a shootout in Saturday's Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Quarterfinal matchup at St. Joseph's College. After both teams battled to a 1-1 draw through two ten minute overtime periods and ninety minutes of regulation, Suffolk advances after winning the deciding shootout 4-3.

Junior Lisa Gambale (Swampscott, Mass.) scored the deciding goal in the shootout on Suffolk's fifth attempt as the Rams advance to the semifinals of the eight-team conference tournament for the second time in three seasons.

St. Joseph's got on the board first when senior Ashley Beaulieu (Durham, N.H.) scored her third goal of the season in the game's twenty-fifth minute. Beaulieu was able to knock home a loose ball in front of the Suffolk goal for the game's first strike.

Suffolk would even things up in the second half. Senior Taylor Miranda (Smithtown, N.Y.) would net her 13th goal of the season as she was fed up field by fellow classmate Gabrielle Balestrier (Mohnton, Pa.) at the seventy-one minute marker.

The Monks would attack late as they had a pair of scoring opportunities in the final five minutes of regulation that were pushed aside by junior goalkeeper Melissa Brouillette (Shelton, Conn.). They would have two more scoring chances shutdown in the first overtime and then both teams would trading opportunities in the second overtime as neither could find the back of the net.

St. Joseph's held a 31-16 edge in shots in the contest as Brouillette was solid in goal for Suffolk once again as she made 11 saves through the 110 minute contest.

Both teams would miss on their first attempts in the shootout before senior Meghan McHale (Halifax, Mass.) and sophomore Nicole Hunt (Weymouth, Mass.) converted their attempts while the Monks answered in their two frames. After a miss by Miranda, Brouillette would strike on Suffolk's fifth shooting attempt while Beaulieu answered for the Monks evening things at three after five rounds. From there Gambale struck home Suffolk's fourth goal in the shootout, before sophomore Jodi Pollack (Andover, Mass.) missed giving the Rams their third playoff victory in three seasons.

Suffolk will now move on to Tuesday's semifinals action as they will host number seven-seed Simmons College. The Sharks were 3-2 winners in a shootout over Albertus Magnus College on Saturday afternoon both teams played to a 0-0 draw.

Tuesday's matchup will be the second meeting of the season between Simmons and Suffolk as the Rams took the previous matchup 2-1 back on September 21.