ABILENE, Texas—
Katie Haskins scored the game winner in the 76th minute to lift Utah Valley to a 1-0 shutout win over Southwest division champion Stephen F. Austin on Friday night in the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament at Elmer Gray Stadium in Abilene, Texas. Utah Valley now moves on to the WAC Tournament championship match against Grand Canyon on Sunday at 12 p.m. (MT).
"We're really excited," said Utah Valley head coach
Chris Lemay. "I thought our team showed a lot of resilience and a lot of grit. We had a lot of the possession and created a lot of chances. We kept pushing and pushing and we always felt like one would eventually fall for us and we're happy it did when it did. It's our 11th shutout of the year and that's a credit to the whole team's defensive mentality."
Utah Valley (13-6-2) will play in the WAC Tournament championship match for the fifth time in the team's nine seasons in the league. It also marks the third-straight season that the Wolverines have advanced to the title match.
The Wolverines finally got their game winner in the 76th minute when
Grace Beeston fought to keep a ball inbounds down the left sideline and passed it forward to
Julianna Carter down the line. Carter then crossed the ball over to defeat her opponent and dribbled the ball into the box on the left side before passing it off to Haskins who was able to toe-poke it towards the far post and across the line for the score for the eventual game winner.
The Wolverine defense picks up its 11th shutout of the season, which ties last season's squad for the most shutouts ever recorded in a single season by a UVU team. The defense helped the Wolverines control 63 percent of the possession on the night.
Brooklyn Nielsen led UVU in the box with her eighth solo shutout of the year. She had one critical save coming in the 89th minute that kept the Wolverines ahead.
Utah Valley outshot Stephen F. Austin 20-3 on the night, which included a 5-1 advantage on shots on frame. The Wolverines had eight corners to SFA's one.
Sadie Brockbank led UVU with 10 shots, marking her second-straight match with 10 or more shots. Brockbank also had two shots on goal.
Amber Tripp had four shots, while Haskins had two shots, including the one on frame.
Utah Valley will play Grand Canyon on Sunday at 12 p.m. (MT) in the WAC Tournament championship game. The winner will earn the WAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
