The University of Nevada soccer team qualified for the 2012 Mountain West Women’s Soccer Tournament, with a 0-0 tie against Fresno State Sunday afternoon. The match marked the last home contest for seniors Dana Moreno, Lauren Braman, and Sarah Schmeda.
The shutout is the fourth straight for the team, which ties a program record of consecutive shutouts that was set during the 2010 season. The Wolf Pack is 5-5-6 under Dr. Price in overtime matches.
“I’m proud of the way the team battled through two overtime matches in one weekend,” head coach Dr. Melissa Price said. “That’s a lot of energy for the team to put out. We fought to not allow the seniors to go out with a loss in their final home match.”
The tie places Nevada (6-8-3, 2-2-2 MW) on the season, while Fresno State sits at (4-9-5, 2-2-2 MW). The team clinched a berth to the conference tournament in its inaugural year as a member of the Mountain West.
“Qualifying for the conference tournament was a huge goal of ours going into the season,” Dr. Price said. “We started off 0-2 in conference play and basically hit the reset button. We asked ourselves what would it take through the next five matches to control our own destiny and secure a spot in the tournament in San Diego and we did that today.”
Nevada and Fresno State had a tightly contested opening period, as each team recorded a total of five shots. The Bulldogs held a three to one shot on goal advantage over the Wolf Pack in the first period. The limited opportunities from both sides produced a 0-0 score at halftime.
The Bulldogs came out of the intermission as the aggressor to begin the second period. The team had several chances on goal from two corner kick opportunities in the early minutes. Wolf Pack goalkeeper Dana Moreno and the Nevada defense managed to keep the ball out of the net and the match tied at 0-0. Wolf Pack sophomore Chrisalyn Fonte’s shot on goal in the 57th minute seemed to be on target, but hit the crossbar to deny the advantage. Fresno State had a shot on goal in the waning minutes that was corralled by Moreno to end regulation with a score of 0-0.
Fresno State tallied a total of six corner kicks to one for Nevada in overtime. Neither team was able to pull ahead in both extra periods, as the match ended 0-0.
The Wolf Pack will close out the 2012 regular season Saturday on the road against Boise State at noon.
