Box Score BUCKHANNON – Shepherd's game-plan was a simple one against the 11th-ranked West Virginia Wesleyan Lady Bobcats in their Mountain East Conference semi-final tournament game today at Culpepper Stadium.
Shepherd packed in their defense tight, sometimes with 10 players defending in the box.
Their plan worked as after 110 minutes of action and two overtime periods the score remained deadlocked at 0-0.
But Wesleyan advanced to the MEC championship game after winning the contest on penalty kicks by a 5-3 margin.
Wesleyan completely controlled the first half as Shepherd had little more than four minutes of possession time in Wesleyan's end.
Shepherd continued to forgo any offensive attack and kept their focus on pushing the game into a penalty kick situation during the second half of play and the two overtime sessions.
Shepherd had just one shot after the two overtime periods while Wesleyan had 26 shots and 10 shots-on-goal.
Wesleyan went first in the shootout as Rachel Ritchey (pictured) left the Shepherd goalie standing in her tracks as she put in a goal to the upper left corner of the net.
Kristi Dalton (pictured) put in the second shot for Wesleyan and Sami Lackner put in the third penalty kick.
Up 3-2, Wesleyan keeper Hillary Dewitt stopped a shot by Shepherd's Taylor Harwood in the third round of the shootout.
Wesleyan's Keenan Moreta and Lexy Junker each found the back of the net in the fourth round that left Wesleyan up 4-3 going into the final round.
Jane Schleicher gave Wesleyan the win as she buried her shot past Shepherd keeper Christi LaBella.
DeWitt stopped the only shot she saw for her 17th shutout of the season.
On top of owning a huge advantage in shots, the Lady Bobcats had an 8-0 lead in corner kicks.
Despite Wesleyan winning the shootout, it will officially go down as a tie for the Lady Bobcats.
Wesleyan is now 16-0-3 as they head into Sunday's MEC Championship game.
The Lady Bobcats will host Charleston, who was a 1-0 winner over Notre Dame, in the other semi-final contest.
Wesleyan swept the series against Charleston, winning both games by a 1-0 score.
The time of the championship game has yet to be determined by league officials.
(Photo courtesy of Pete Galarneau Jr.)
