West Chester Advances To National Semifinals With OT Win

Box Score

MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – Rachal Toppi (Glassboro, N.J./Glassboro) finished off a beautiful pass from Alexis Versak (Limerick, Pa./Spring-Ford) in the 99th minute to lift third-ranked West Chester to a 2-1 overtime victory over second-ranked Millersville in the NCAA Quarterfinals at Biemesderfer Stadium Saturday afternoon.
 
West Chester (17-4) advances to the national semifinals for the fourth time in the last five years and will play East Stroudsburg on Friday afternoon in Bloomsburg, Pa. Millersville (18-3) saw its season come to a close, after reaching the NCAA Tournament for the third consecutive season.
 
"We finally played well and won on that field," West Chester head coach Amy Cohen said. "It was definitely a team win today."
 
Toppi propelled the Golden Rams into the final four with a breakaway goal with 1:20 left on the clock in the second overtime. Versak sent the sophomore forward in all alone on Samantha Rumler.
 
For the sixth time in the last eight match-ups, the two rivals played into overtime. The win was a bit of redemption for West Chester as Millersville had knocked the Golden Rams out of the NCAA playoffs in 2013 and 2014. Toppi scored both of West Chester's goals in the game. She now has a team-best 23 goals on the year. Millersville's goal came from Courtney Weaver.
 
Junior GK Sarah Krause (Lancaster, Pa./Conestoga Valley) redeemed herself as well, making two saves in 99 minutes of action, after allowing a game-winning goal in overtime against Millersville on this very same field in the regular-season meeting between the two rivals.
 
"(Krause) gave a great effort all day," Cohen added. "This team is excited to be going back to the semifinals."
 
West Chester will have yet another shot at redemption as the top-ranked East Stroudsburg Warriors await next weekend.