LYNCHBURG, Va. – The FGCU women's soccer team punched its ticket to the 2022 NCAA Tournament, Friday, by taking down top-seed Liberty in penalty kicks in the ASUN Championship match.
Goalkeeper
Katie Sullivan (Wheaton, Ill.) made the clinching save in the fifth round of penalties to send the Eagles into a celebration. It is the seventh time the Eagles have won the ASUN Tournament and the first since 2017. The Eagles will enter the NCAA Tournament with a record of 12-5-2 while Liberty finishes its season 14-3-4.
"I'm incredibly proud," said head coach
Jim Blankenship. "We've said it all year that this team has found a way to fight back. Words can't express how proud I am. We've been blessed to have a team that has been here multiple years in a row and it became an expectation. It's truly an amazing group of ladies."
In order to get to penalties, the Eagles had to find a way to force overtime first as they fell behind 1-0 in the first half. With just five minutes left in regulation,
Margaret Berry (Holly, Mich.) did just that as she found the back of the net off a corner kick.
Louise Lillback (Stockholm, Sweden) sent the corner into the box where the ball found the head of
Kendal Gargiula (North Fort Myers, Fla.), who headed it to a waiting Berry, who slotted it past the keeper.
After a relatively uneventful first overtime, things got crazy in the final minute of the second overtime. Liberty earned a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box near the goal line. The Flames sent the ball into the box, but the Eagles cleared it away leading to a counter-attack by
Erika Zschuppe (Kirtland, Ohio) and Lillback with under 20 seconds remaining. Zschuppe dribbled the length of the field before passing the ball off to Lillback, who fired a shot, but her shot was just tipped over the bar in the final seconds.
In penalties, the Eagles went first, but
Leah Scarpelli's (Brick, N.J.) shot was saved by ASUN Goalkeeper of the Year Ainsley Leja. That would be the last time the Eagles did not convert as Lillback,
Ashley Labbe (Lake Worth, Fla.), Zschuppe, and
Nellie Nygren (Gothenburg, Sweden) all found the back of the net in the ensuing four rounds.
The Flames got on the board in the first round of penalties to take the lead but McKinley Burkett's shot in the second round sailed high. After two more makes, it came down to Rebekah Earnest, but Sullivan was ready as she made a diving save to her right and send the Eagles to the NCAA Tournament.
FGCU will find out who its first opponent in the NCAA Tournament will be and where they will be playing on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. with the selection show airing on NCAA.com.
For complete coverage of FGCU women's soccer, follow the Eagles on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at @FGCU_WSoccer and online at
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COACH JIM BLANKENSHIP
A veteran of over two decades in collegiate coaching, head coach
Jim Blankenship, who was named the ASUN Coach of the Year in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2019, has built FGCU women's soccer into a yearly contender in the ASUN Conference and a rising program in the South Region in just 16 seasons. Blankenship started the program in 2007 and has since guided the Eagles to double-digit win seasons every year except the COVID-shortened 2020 season, culminating with ASUN Regular Season Championships in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019. In 2011 and 2012 he also led the Eagles to back-to-back ASUN Tournament titles as they became the first team in the history of the university to make it to the NCAA Tournament. The Eagles went on to win the 2014 ASUN Tournament and hosted the first NCAA Championship event on campus. The Eagles earned their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance with the 2015 ASUN Tournament Championship and won their first NCAA game at USF in 2015 while finishing 24th in the nation. In 2016, the Eagles made it three-consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament with a third-straight ASUN Tournament title. A year later, the Eagles became the first ASUN women's soccer program to make four-straight NCAA Tournaments with another tournament title in 2017. Blankenship has guided FGCU to a 196-74-30 (.703) overall record through the first 16 seasons of the program's existence, including an 101-20-16 (.799) mark in the ASUN. Blankenship's impressive career record of 436-145-41 (.735) over 32 seasons has come while leading FGCU, the University of Miami, Lynn University and St. Thomas University.
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#FEEDFGCU
FGCU Athletics sponsors events in November and April to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.
ABOUT FGCU
FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 92 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 15 seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just 11 seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 45 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. In 2022, the men's golf team became the first program to earn at at-large berth to the NCAA Tournament. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 20, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2022) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as four of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 26 consecutive semesters. The past five semesters (Fall 2019 – Spring 2022) saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher cumulative team GPA. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl.
