Big Second Half Lifts St. Norbert Past Monmouth

From Sports Information Director, November 2, 2012 | Women's Soccer
by Dan Lukes, dan.lukes@snc.edu, (920) 403-4077

WAUKEGAN, Ill. - St. Norbert College scored three-second half goals en route to a 3-1 win over Monmouth College in a Midwest Conference Tournament semifinal game at Waukegan SportsPark.

The Green Knights (13-3-3) advanced to the tournament championship game for the fourth time in five years at 11 a.m. Saturday against league champion Lake Forest College (12-5-1). The Foresters beat Grinnell College 3-0 in the other semifinal contest. St. Norbert is hunting for its first NCAA Division III Tournament berth in program history. Since the Midwest Conference began receiving an automatic qualifier into the NCAA Tournament starting in 1999, the Green Knights have made seven previous MWC Tournament championship games but have not claimed a title.

Monmouth (9-7-3) jumped ahead to a 1-0 lead in the first half when the Fighting Scots' Lauren Kellen scored her 18th goal of the year at the 34 minutes 23 seconds mark. Monmouth brought that lead into the second half until the Green Knights tied the match at 46:48 on Zoe Kurth's fourth goal of the season.

The Green Knights pushed ahead at 75:07 when Katie Vanden Avond tallied her 26th goal of the season, a marker that would hold up has her eighth game-winning goal of the year. Kaitlin Schmitz assisted.

St. Norbert salted the game away at 83:55 when Schmitz scored her sixth goal of the season, with an assist going to Beth Lonergan.

The Green Knights outshot Monmouth 14-13, including 11-8 in the decisive second half. Sarah Platzer made seven saves for St. Norbert, while Samantha Barranco made seven stops for Monmouth.