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 Sophomore Bri Cunningham scored the lone goal in PK's to give WCU the tournament title |
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April 13, 2008
Cullowhee, N.C. - The Western Carolina women's soccer team claimed its annual Spring 7v7 Tournament at the Catamount Athletic Complex, repeating as champions for the third straight season by going undefeated in their bracket and then taking down Gardner-Webb via penalty kicks in the championship game.
The tournament format featured 18 teams total, which were split into three brackets of six teams apiece. Each team played four games in the tournament, with the top two teams in each bracket advancing to the knock-out rounds.
Western defeated USC Upstate 3-0 in their quarterfinal game, and moved on to face off against Carson-Newman in the semifinals. Their 2-0 victory over the Eagles punched a ticket for WCU in the championship game, against Gardner-Webb.
In the finals, the Catamounts and the Bulldogs battled through regulation and overtime and ended in a 1-1 tie. To break the deadlock, the two teams faced off in a shoot-out played by Major League Soccer rules, in which each team had three shooters apiece taking penalty kicks to decide the winner.
WCU sophomore Bri Cunningham put in her third goal of the spring in the shoot-out, a score that turned out to be the game-winner. Freshman goalkeeper Caitlin Williams denied all three G-W shooters to preserve the 1-0 win and the tournament title for the Catamounts.
In addition to the college teams in the tournament, WCU had two of its women's alumni teams competing in the weekend's event. The "older" alumni played all of its games close, but were unable to advance. Western's "younger" alumni finished second in their bracket, and advanced into the quarterfinals. Their run was ended by Gardner-Webb, 2-1, in a shootout.
The festivities continued with the annual Alumni game, pitting the men's and the women's alum players against each other. This season, the men took home the crown, and then were followed by the coed alumni game, in which the "even" graduation year players beat the "odd" graduation year players in penalty kicks.
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