It took 110 minutes and a penalty shootout, but the Minot State University women's soccer season continues for at least one more game.
The Beavers were outshot 35-3 on Friday, in Mankato, Minn., but Marie Torres was there time and time again for MSU (15-3-3). The Minot State senior goalkeeper stopped 13 of No. 3 Minnesota State-Mankato's 14 shots on goal to keep the score at 1-1 entering the shootout.
Three MSU goals, a Torres save and two Mankato misses sent the fourth-seeded Beavers to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference championship match and eliminated the Mavericks (16-2-2), who were undefeated in regular-season conference play.
"She's an All-American in my book," MSU coach Jason Spain said. "I thought she did a good job with organization. We forced them to take tough shots."
MSU's Emilie Rebelo, Zoe Fisher and Lexy Kidd scored in the first three rounds of the shootout. A Torres save in round two and a shot off the crossbar a round later meant all the Beavers had to do to preserve the victory was score or stop a Mavericks attempt.
In round five, a Mankato shot hit the crossbar to end the match.
Minot State plays Winona State on Sunday at 1 p.m. A win gives the Beavers an automatic berth into the NCAA Central Region tournament.They could hope for an at-large bid with a loss but would prefer to not take that risk.
The Beavers won 1-0 at Winona State earlier this season.
"It would be huge," Torres said. "Just for our athletic program in general. There's a lot of schools out there that underestimate us being in the NCAA. A win right now would show people that just because we're new, we're not going down easy."
Tara McPartland scored MSU's lone regulation goal.