ST. PAUL, Minn. – Top-seeded #20 Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (17-1-2) advanced to the NSIC Tournament Championship game with a 2-1 2OT win over fifth-seeded St. Cloud State (12-5-3) on Friday afternoon at Sea Foam Stadium. This was Concordia's second playoff win at home this year as they defeated Wayne State on Wednesday night in the opening round of the NSIC tournament.
 
With the win, CSP will play in their first ever NSIC Championship game on Sunday against #13 Minnesota State Mankato at Sea Foam Stadium at 2 p.m. The Mavericks defeated the Vikings 3-0 this morning at Sea Foam Stadium to advance to the championship game vs the Golden Bears. This will be the second time that these two teams will match up in the past two weeks. The Golden Bears defeated the Mavericks last Friday in Mankato to capture their first ever NSIC Regular Season Championship and their first ever program win over Minnesota State. 

NSIC Freshman of the Year, Nikki Anderson was the difference maker in this game. Anderson scored the first goal and the game winning goal for CSP to send the Golden Bears to the championship game.
 
Head coach Steve Bellis commented on his teams exciting overtime victory, "What a great battle, we showed a lot of character and I am very proud of our team and our composure. Our team's determination showed in this game and what a wonderful goal by our Freshman of the Year to send us to the championship game! We couldn't be more excited to play for the NSIC championship in front of our fans and at home!" 


 
GAME RECAP
In the first half it was pretty evenly match as each team had six shots and the Huskies had five on goal to the Golden Bears three. The Golden Bears possessed the ball 59% of the time during the first half and also had four corner kicks. In the 10^th minute of play the Huskies had an opportunity as Jenna Dominguez took a shot that was saved by Jordyn Clark shuffling to her left. St. Cloud State had another opportunity in the 15^th minute as Kaitlyn Dzubinski tried to go bottom left again but Clark was there to make the save. In the 28^th minute Jackie Ehlert shot one from far out trying to catch keeper Zoe Welsh off guard, but Welsh was able to shut the door on Ehlert. Towards the end of the half in the 44^th minute, Golden Bear freshman Katie Anderson tried to get CSP on the board before half time, she took a shot low on Welsh, but the Huskie Keeper made the sliding save and the game was scoreless at halftime. 
 
Jordyn Clark had five saves and faced six shots in the first half of play and Zoe Welsh had three saves while facing six shots for the Huskies in the first half.
 
In the second half the Huskies came out flying, in the 49^th minute Kristine Knife tried to go up top against Jordyn Clark to open the half, but Clark made the nice save. It wasn't until the 65^th minute when Katie Anderson took a great shot from outside of the box that rang off the crossbar and fell onto the line and Nikki Anderson was there to put away the goal and get the Golden Bears up 1-0 in the game. It was a very back and forth and aggressive game from that point on, both teams had chances but when the Golden Bears were 30 seconds away from victory Kaitlyn Dziubinski received a cross in the box and made a move to get a clear shooting lane and buried it in the right side of the net to tie the game up 1-1 for St. Cloud State which would send the Golden Bears and the Huskies into overtime. 
 
Jordyn Clark made two saves and faced seven shots in the second half and Zoe Welsh made one save and also faced seven shots in the second half.
 
In the first overtime the Huskies outshot the Golden Bears 2-1 and each team had a corner kick. Neither team had a great scoring opportunity in the first overtime and both Clark and Welsh made one save. In the second overtime the Golden Bears took control of the period and had two shots and held the Huskies to zero shots. In the 106^th minute of play, Nikki Anderson received a cross from Hannah Pedersen on the other side of the box and made a nice move around a Huskies defender and fired a shot that found the top back right side of the net to win the game for Concordia and to send them to a championship match against the Mavericks on Sunday afternoon.  
 
Jordyn Clark recorded her 17^th win of the season playing in all 107 minutes facing 15 shots and making eight saves. Zoe Welsh took the loss and made five saves while facing 16 in the 107 minutes she played. 
 
The hero Nikki Anderson led the Golden Bear offense with two goals with three shots on net, while playing in 101 minutes in this game. Katie Anderson had four shots with one on goal, both Hannah Pavek and Jackie Ehlert had two shots with one on goal, Leah Johnson, Haleigh Bares, Hanna Pedersen, Jena Berkland and Cayla Renwick each had a shot as well. 
 
Head out to Sea Foam Stadium on Sunday to watch the Golden Bears take on Minnesota State for the NSIC Championship game at 2 p.m. The game will also be available on live stream and live stats, the links can be found on the soccer schedule page.