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2022 NCAA D2 National Championship Game - Full Replay
SEATTLE, WA – Western Washington's Claire Potter's cross just caught the far post and went in with just under eight minutes to play, lifting the Vikings to a 2-1 victory over West Chester in the 2022 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer National Championship Game Saturday afternoon at Interbay Stadium.
West Chester (23-1-1) saw its 23-match unbeaten streak come to a close in the final game of the season. Western Washington (19-2-4) captured its second national title and first since 2016 with the win.
"(Western Washington) was definitely the best team we have faced all season," head coach
Betty Ann Kempf Townsley said. "I knew it was going to be a 1v1 type of game and we had to keep them in front of us."
Western Washington's relentless pressure the final 10 minutes of the game finally paid off. The eventual game-winner was the culmination of a couple near misses from the Vikings moments earlier. A service deep into the six-yard box was deflected up and over the crossbar with 21 minutes left in regulation. Three minutes later, the Vikings had another golden opportunity on a 3-on-1 break, but an attempted tip of a shot from the 18 was right at
Hayley McGee (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley).
With nine minutes to go, McGee came up big again on Vikings' star midfielder Tera Ziemer when she broke in down the left side, but her shot was gobbled up by the diving keeper for one of her nine saves on the afternoon.
McGee was busy right from the start, making a tremendous save 12 minutes into the match on a point-blank attempt from Western Washington that kept the game scoreless for the time being. However, the Vikings applied constant pressure in their attacking third early on until the Golden Rams' defense broke down.
The Vikings struck first in the 16th minute when a service into the box was headed on and Ziemer's shot went off the hands of McGee and trickled over the goal line.
Alyson Cutter (Warrington, Pa./Central Bucks South) leveled the score 11 minutes later with a fancy header of her own into the top left corner of the goal off a long direct kick from
Kiley Kergides (Rydal, Pa./Germantown Academy).
"I saw everybody lining up at the 18, and I decided to just serve it into the mix and see what happened," Kergides said about the Golden Rams' goal.
Western Washington outshot West Chester, 25-3, and took six corners to the Golden Rams' two. Vikings' keeper Claire Henninger made one save.
NOTES: West Chester University competed in its first national championship game in school history … it was the team's second national semifinal appearance in school history (2006) … today's game, played on December 3rd, marks the latest date on the calendar that the Golden Rams have played a women's soccer match … West Chester representatives on the all-tournament team included:
Kaitlynn Haughey,
Alyson Cutter,
Deanna Lebotesis.
