Fourth-seeded Oral Roberts advances to title via penalty kicks

DENVER, Colo. – Fourth-seeded Oral Roberts stunned top-seeded Denver advancing to the Summit League women's soccer championship match via a 3-2 advantage in penalty kicks Sunday at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium. The teams played to a scoreless draw through 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of extra time before the Golden Eagles secured the upset in the shootout.

After Denver made its first two penalty attempts to take a 2-1 advantage, ORU goalkeeper Louisa Ramsauer made a diving save to allow Samantha Guzman to square things up at two makes a piece. The Pioneers then sent their fourth attempt wide of the right post and Gabrielle Abbey gave her squad its first advantage of the shootout.

That set the stage for Ramsauer once again as her diving stop of a Hannah Gallegos' attempt sent the Golden Eagles to their first tournament title appearance since 2016 and will be seeking their first tournament title since 2004.

Denver controlled play throughout regulation, holding a 13-4 advantage on shots, including a 7-0 edge in the opening 45 minutes. Ramsauer made five saves, including three in the second half to preserve her eighth shutout of the season, and get revenge from a 5-1 loss suffered to the Pioneers in the regular season.

Gallegos had a header go off the post in the 78th minute on one of six corners DU took in the contests. The Pioneers defense did not yield a corner to ORU throughout the match.

In the extra time, ORU got the only shot off between the two teams, who met for the second time in postseason play.

The Golden Eagles will play third-seeded Omaha in the title match next Saturday on the Mavericks' home field. Kickoff is TBA.

Turning point

Ramsauer's second diving save of the penalty shootout set off a wild celebration as the Golden Eagles advanced to the title game in head coach Austin Risenhoover's first season.

Inside the box score

Denver outshot the Golden Eagles 13-4 and took six corner kicks compared to zero by the Golden Eagles. The Pioneers also held a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal.
DU's Addisyn Hyrup was the only player on either team to put multiple shots on goal, posting two in the contest.
Ramsauer and Denver goalkeeper Narea Arrazola were both credited with shutouts to push their season totals to a league-best eight.
This is the fourth straight Summit League Tournamant that one of the matches was decided in a penalty shootout.

News & Notes

The loss snaps a streak of five consecutive years Denver advance to the Summit League Tournament title game.
Oral Roberts' appearance in the postseason is its first since 2018 and this will be the program's first title-game appearance since 2016. The Golden Eagles appeared in the first six title games from 1999-2004, posting a 2-4 record in those contest, including their last title-game victory in 2004.
This marks just the second time in 23 previous Summit League tournaments that the No. 3 seed will play the No. 4 seed in the title match. The only other time was in 2016 when SDSU defeated Oral Roberts.
Denver won the regular season matchup 5-1 in Tulsa on Oct. 21.

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