Penn State women’s soccer falls to Florida State in the 3rd round of the NCAA tournament
Penn State women’s soccer fell 3-1 to No. 1 Florida State in the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament on Wednesday, thus ending its season in the third round for the second consecutive season.
It looked at one point during the middle stages of the first half that the Nittany Lions gained control of the match after Frankie Tagliaferri broke the scoreless tie, but the Seminoles turned up the pressure and scored three unanswered the rest of the way to advance to the Elite Eight, where they’ll face No. 9 Duke on Sunday.
From the opening kickoff, it was clear as day as to why Florida State was the highest ranked team in the entire tournament. Through the first eight minutes of the game, the Seminoles produced three corner opportunities and five shots, not allowing the Nittany Lions to properly set up their defense or control the ball for more than a couple of passes.
However, it only took one break for Penn State to take full advantage of the limited opportunities it got, and on a great centering pass from Sam Coffey, Tagliaferri pushed the ball ahead and shot it top-right over Seminoles goalkeeper Cristina Roque to take a commanding 1-0 lead.
But that lead only lasted 11 minutes as the onslaught of shots finally got to Nittany Lions’ goalie Katherine Asman, and Florida State tied the game at the 30 minute mark on a corner kick where Kristina Lynch buried it past Asman to knot the game at one.
At halftime, the Seminoles led 18-2 in shots, and it was clear Nittany Lions coach Erica Dambach would need to make major adjustments to will her team to victory over a dominant squad like Florida State.
Asman was doing everything she could to keep her team afloat, but after facing three shots in the opening stages of the second half, the redshirt sophomore goalkeeper couldn’t stop the fourth as Florida State’s leading point scorer, Clara Robbins, scored to give her team the 2-1 edge.
Just under 10 minutes later, Seminoles midfielder Gabby Carle was awarded a penalty kick and she took full advantage, putting the ball past Asman and just like that they put the game out of reach, extending their lead to two goals.
Penn State fought back, but couldn’t generate enough offense to pose any real threat to Florida State. It fell 3-1, and was outshot 32-2 for the game while allowing 12 total corner kicks to the Seminoles.
The Nittany Lions season comes to an end after making it past the round of 32 but failing to reach the final eight for the second straight year, as they lost similarly to then-No. 1 Stanford, 2-0, in the 2019 Sweet Sixteen. Their overall record this season was 12-3-1.