Gaels advance to OUA final after penalty kicks victory over Lions

The Queen's University Gaels women's soccer team needed eight rounds of penalty kicks to defeat the No. 2 nationally-ranked York University Lions 2-1 in their Ontario University Athletics (OUA) semifinal match at Matt Anthony Field in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 7).
 
With the victory, the Gaels advanced to Sunday's OUA championship match and also earned a berth in the CIS championships next week in Vancouver.
 
With the game tied 1-1 after 90 minutes of regulation and another 30 of overtime, the two teams lined up for penalty kicks. Queen's goalkeeper Madison Tyrell (White Rock, B.C.) stopped the first shot she faced and York's Taylor Grant (Brampton, Ont.) stopped the second, and otherwise every player that stepped up to the spot found the back of the net through seven rounds.
 
In the eighth round, Tyrell dove to her right to stop the shot off the foot of Marilyn Grammenopoulos (Whitby, Ont.), and then Lidia Bradau (Woodbridge, Ont.) made no mistake to clinch the victory.
 
The two teams played a tentative opening half an hour, but action started picking up after that point. In the 33^rd minute, the Gaels were awarded a corner and Brittany Almeida (Kingston, Ont.) took a beautiful shot that curled straight for the net and hit in the inside of the far post, but it bounced out of harm's way and the game remained scoreless heading into halftime.
 
The scoring was finally opened in the 62^nd minute on a goal by the Gaels' Jessie De Boer (North Vancouver, B.C.). She sent a high cross into the box that carried all the way into the net in the far corner to give Queen's a 1-0 lead.
 
The intensity quickly picked up after that and the Lions nearly got the equalizer just minutes later on a hard shot from Nour Ghoneim (Aurora, Ont.), but Tyrell made a beautiful save to preserve the one-goal lead.
 
With just nine minutes remaining on the clock the Lions tied it on a fantastic second effort by Colleen Beesley (Richmond Hill, Ont.), who had subbed into the game just minutes before. Ghoneim sent another shot on net that Tyrell stopped, but the Beesley stayed with the play and tucked the rebound into the net to equal the score at 1-1.
 
The Lions controlled the play for most of overtime, although both teams had their chances. Sydney Hoareau (Brampton, Ont.) had a strong shot that hit the crossbar 13 minutes into the extra frame, and with seven minutes remaining a rush by the Lions ended with the ball rolling just past Hoareau's outstretched leg. In the dying moments, Grant made a fantastic diving save to her right to keep the ball out and send it to penalty kicks.
 
Grant finished with six saves in the game, the most she's had in one contest this season, while Tyrell was the star all day with a number of key saves, finishing with 12 overall plus the two in the shootout.
 
The Gaels will now face the No. 6 Laurier Golden Hawks in the gold medal final on Sunday afternoon at 2pm, while the Lions will face the No. 3 Ottawa Gee-Gees for bronze at 11am. Both games will take place at Matt Anthony Field and can be seen live online on OUA.tv.