Central Missouri women win soccer national championship

For the first time in its 23 years, the Central Missouri women’s soccer team is a national champion.

The top-ranked Jennies defeated No. 2 Carson-Newman (Tenn.) 5-3 in a shootout to clinch the NCAA Division II title at Swope Soccer Village on Saturday afternoon. They retained a perfect record (26-0-0), the best in program history, in doing so.

Olathe South graduate and Jennies senior forward Abby Rhodes found the back of the net on her penalty-kick shot to seal the victory in front of a raucous crowd of Central Missouri supporters, who had remained on their feet through two frantic overtime periods. The game went to overtime after the teams were tied 1-1.

“In four years, there’s been ups and downs,” Rhodes said. “But to finish on this note, it’s great.”

Central Missouri coach Lewis Theobald warned his team weeks ago not to dream about this stage.

The Jennies, who at that point had recently been ranked No. 1 in NCAA Division II, had never made it beyond the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament. Even when they beat Mercy in the Final Four here on Thursday, Theobald asked his team to treat the final like any other game.

“I was like, ‘You gotta stay in the now,’” said Theobald, who coached at Olathe Northwest prior to becoming the Central Missouri coach in 2007.

So the Jennies were nervous on Saturday, just as they had been for every game this season. They didn’t take their unbeaten record for granted, and they played a tough game on Saturday. It was a game in which they outshot Carson-Newman 25-16 but which only produced a tie until the shootout. In fact, Central Missouri had to rally in the final seconds of regulation.

Carson-Newman kept a tight lid on Central Missouri’s offensive attack. Goalkeeper Jacqueline Burns was credited with nine saves on Central Missouri’s 10 on-frame attempts.

Carson-Newman took an early 1-0 lead in the 19th minute when Lauren Wade, on assists by Holly Talbut-Smith and Caterina Realista, chipped the ball into the net out of Central Missouri senior goalkeeper Ana Dilkes’ reach. It was only the second goal Central Missouri allowed in the NCAA tournament and the fifth overall this season.

The Jennies hadn’t trailed in a game since Oct. 13.

“The first thing in the locker room (at halftime), I don’t know if I believed it, but I told them, ‘We’re gonna win,’” Theobald said. “I was trying to give them confidence. I said, ‘The game’s about defining moments now, so when the moment comes, you have to define the moment. Don’t let the moment define you. When it comes, you got to be ready for it and take it.’”

And junior Jada Scott was ready. With 30 seconds remaining in regulation and Central Missouri down 1-0, Scott was fouled inside the box and awarded a penalty kick. She hooked the ball past Burns to tie the game 1-1.

“With 30 seconds to go (for a national championship), it’s a hard one to swallow,” Carson-Newman coach Simon Duffy said.

Since 2010, Central Missouri has a 157-14-10 record. The Jennies have appeared in every NCAA Tournament in that span but advanced to the semifinals for the first time this season.

“It was a long way coming for us,” Scott said. “We were always there. We knew we just had to keep pushing every year.”

Charleston prevails on men’s side

Charleston (W.Va.) won the men’s national championship with a victory in the final over Lynn (Fla.) at Swope Soccer Village.

After a 0-0 score through regulation and two overtimes, Charleston won the shootout 3-1 on penalty kicks.

Lynn had knocked out Rockhurst in a shootout on Thursday in the semifinals.

Charleston and Lynn also played in the national championship in 2014, with Lynn coming away with the title.

This story was originally published December 2, 2017 at 6:11 PM with the headline "Central Missouri women win soccer national championship."