Article Date
October 31, 2005
An up and down day for the Lady Bison soccer team ended on the up side on all fronts Monday with the Oklahoma Baptist University women recording an upset in the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament.
Fourth-seeded OBU upset top-seeded John Brown in Siloam Springs, Ark., taking home a penalty kick triple overtime win for the second contest in a row after being tied 1-1 through two overtime periods.
More importantly, the Lady Bison learned their surprising region fate. OBU headed off to John Brown Monday believing it would be the first of two trips to Siloam Springs with JBU hosting the region tournament.
But upon arrival, Coach Marcelo Galvao learned that there were miscalculations in OBU's LONGO rating score and the Lady Bison would be hosting. However, another SAC team reported its LONGO during the game on Monday and it appeared that not only was OBU not hosting, but that the Lady Bison would have to win the SAC Tournament to even qualify for the Region VI Tourney.
However, errors were found on that late LONGO as well and the final word Monday was that OBU indeed would be hosting the regional Nov. 8-9 with John Brown, Oklahoma City and the Red River Conference champion joining the top-seeded Lady Bison.
In Monday's game, OBU took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Autumn Oury, with an assist coming from Hilary Hendrickson in the 21st minute. But John Brown answered very quickly, scoring on a Nikki Ganter goal just 30 seconds later.
Both teams had additional chances in regulation, but neither could capitalize through two overtimes.
The Lady Bison missed two of their first three PKs but John Brown was also off target. With good shots from Kara McGrenera, Cara Zalenski and Lauren Aldred, OBU was set up to win the contest when senior keeper Maira Negri caught a John Brown attempt and then delivered the winning shot herself for the 4-3 shoot-out victory.
"It was a close game and Maira kept us in it," said Galvao. "I think she had one of her best games of the year."
With the win, OBU advanced to the SAC Championship Game to be played at Oklahoma City University Friday.