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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The Big West Championship Most Valuable Player Glo Hinojosa came up with huge saves in regulation, overtime and the penalty-kick tiebreaker to propel UC Irvine past Brown University in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Championship on Friday night at the Alabama Soccer Stadium.
The result of the first all-time meeting between the programs officially goes down as a 1-1 draw, with The Big West champion UC Irvine advancing 4-2 on penalty kicks. The Anteaters move to 11-5-7 overall. They had entered as winners of a season-best five in a row, including four consecutive shutouts to begin this remarkable postseason run. Ivy League champion Brown, out of Providence, R.I., finishes at 13-2-3. The Bears had also won five straight and wound up an unbeaten 8-0-2 over their last 10 going back to their conference opener on Sept. 24.
The ‘Eaters blanked No. 4 seed and 14th-ranked USC in Los Angeles, 2-0, in the first round last Saturday, while Brown similarly upset fifth-seeded and 24th-ranked Rutgers on the road in Piscataway, N.J., 1-0, to set up Friday’s showdown. Ava Seelenfreund, a California product from Truckee, scored her team-leading 10th goal in the 81st minute.
UC Irvine moves on to the third round to take on top-seeded and third-ranked host Alabama (21-2-1), which edged No. 8 seed Portland (12-5-4), 2-1, in Friday’s late second-round affair in Tuscaloosa. That matchup is set for this Sunday, Nov. 20, at 11 a.m. PT on ESPN+.
Brown started the contest off on the front foot, and earned a free kick in the fourth minute straight on from just outside the 18-yard box. Seelenfreund blasted the free kick directly off the wall, with repeat Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year Brittany Raphino’s follow-up also getting blocked away. Raphino then met with the ball in a dangerous spot inside the box on the right diagonal in the sixth minute, but UCI’s Alex Jaquez was able to track back and deflect the shot out for the game’s first corner kick.
Raphino received good service from first the left, and then the right side, for headed efforts in the seventh and ninth minutes, respectively, but neither shot troubled Hinojosa much.
A stellar give-and-go put Seelenfreund in the penalty area in the 23rd minute, but the senior forward’s right-footer looked to be bounding just wide when Hinojosa smothered it around the right post.
The Bears were ultimately credited with the game’s first 10 shots, before UCI finally picked up its first one in the 32nd minute through Aislynn Crowder. Amber Huff’s long throw-in from the right was cleared out, with Crowder pumping it back in with the right foot into a defender.
Having been out-shot 12-2 to that point, UC Irvine managed the game’s opening goal with just 27 seconds remaining in the first half from the counterattack. Lilli Rask’s first-time long ball sent fellow substitute Alyssa Moore running alone toward the opposing goal, having started a run from inside the ‘Eater half. The redshirt sophomore forward took two touches approaching the penalty area and struck a right-footed shot from about 18 yards that bent around the Brown goalie and found the back of the net. It was Moore’s sixth goal of 2022 for a share of the team lead, and Rask’s second assist. The tally was also Moore’s third of the postseason, having also provided the overtime winner against UC Davis in The Big West semifinals, and the late clincher at USC six days earlier.
At exactly the 66:00 mark, Hinojosa charged out of the net and was adjudged to have fouled Raphino at the very edge of the 18-yard box, with a penalty kick and yellow card awarded. Following a replay review that confirmed the referee’s decision, Raphino went right-footed low to a diving Hinojosa’s left to knot the score at 1-1. It was the senior’s 10th to move into a tie on the team chart with Seelenfreund. The equalizer also snapped UCI and Hinojosa’s shutout string at 551:39.
Moore nearly put UCI back in the lead moments after the restart, but the goal was wiped out due to an offside call. Once more in the second period, it was Brown with the first five shots, before Moore had back-to-back attempts blocked away by defenders at the end of another galloping counterattack breakaway run in the 79th.
Early in the second 10-minute period of overtime, Seelenfreund’s point-blank left-footer was parried away by Hinojosa. UCI’s Kiera Smeenge dragged her attempt from the edge of the area just wide to the left.
It looked like Brown had won it with seconds left in overtime, as Raphino slipped Seelenfreund through alone on the right diagonal, but Hinojosa produced the giant game-saving stop with the left hand.
The penalty-kick tiebreaker began with a bang for the ‘Eaters as Hinojosa dove left to deny both Seelenfreund and Raphino back to back around Tati Fung’s conversion. Crowder also beat Clare Gagne, who took over for starter Bella Schopp for the shootout, to give UCI a commanding 2-0 advantage.
After Brown’s first successful attempt, Erin Covey placed it perfectly into the upper right with nothing Gagne could do. Hinojosa got hands on Kira Maguire’s try but couldn’t keep it out. Freshman Emilie Castagna then made it a perfect four-for-four for the ‘Eaters to advance them.
Hinojosa, the 2021 Big West Goalkeeper of the Year, finished with six saves over 110 minutes. The fifth-year junior also came out and two-hand-snatched an effective right-sided corner kick from Brown assist co-leader Sheyenne Allen in the 60th minute. Hinojosa has played all 2,130 minutes in 2022, and leads the conference with her career-best 11 shutouts, currently tied with five others for seventh in Division I.
Schopp was called on to make two stops late in regulation. Moore’s goal ended the true freshman Hinsdale, Ill., native’s shutout string at 352:49, going back to a 1-1 home draw with Harvard on Oct. 15.
The final shot tally was 24-9 in favor of the Bears. Seelenfreund (nine) and Raphino combined for 14 of the Bears’ attempts. Moore paced UCI with four shots. Brown was the nation’s No. 3 scoring offense coming in at 2.88 goals per game. Incidentally Sunday’s foe, Alabama, is No. 1.
This is the Anteaters’ fourth NCAA tournament appearance, all under 16th-year head coach Scott Juniper, and the second time they are making back-to-back trips, having participated initially in the 2010 and 2011 editions. The ‘Eaters are now 4-2-2 in the NCAA postseason all-time.
Friday marked the ‘Eaters’ third-ever NCAA second-round tilt. They had previously dropped a 3-0 decision to Wisconsin last year in Fairfax, Va., after stunning No. 2 seed UCLA on the road, 1-0. In 2010, UCI edged Arizona State, 2-1, and blanked Wake Forest, 2-0, before falling to Washington in the third round, 1-0 in double overtime. All three of those contests were in Irvine.
Friday was also the first time a Big West women’s soccer program advanced past a penalty-kick tiebreaker in the NCAA Championship. League members had fallen short in three prior instances, including UCI itself in the 2011 first round.