CLEVELAND, Miss. – There was no shortage of drama on the Mississippi Delta on Sunday afternoon as the West Georgia Wolves soccer team advanced to the semifinals of the Gulf South Conference tournament with a 0-0 draw and a win in penalty kicks over the third-seed Delta State Lady Statesmen.
It's the first win in the Gulf South Conference Tournament since 2012 for the West Georgia program and the first under head coach
Stacey Balaam.
"We were so resilient. We knew it was a game that was going to really tight because it was when we played them in the season," said Balaam. "This one we knew we needed to stay focused because anything can happen in tight games like this."
And by anything can happen, the Wolves won a game while not getting off a shot. For the game, the third seeded Lady Statesmen (8-7-3) held West Georgia without a shot, but the Wolves (9-7-1) defense held strong with
Haley Brinkman making five saves in 110 minutes and sending the game to overtime at 0-0.
But when the game went to penalty kicks, Balaam made a tough decision that turned out to be key.
After 110 minutes, Balaam turned to backup goal keeper
Chanceley Book for the penalty kick shootout, and the junior came up big, making a save on the fourth penalty kick.
"Chanceley gets it done in training. We practiced them before we came," Balaam added. "We knew it was important because it can come down to them in the knockout stages. We knew that Chanceley has good range and she's a good goalkeeper and Brink got us to there so credit to her."
After Book's save on the fourth attempt, sophomore
Jade Butcher buried her attempt, clinching the win and sending UWG to the GSC Semifinals in the program's first ever win in a penalty kick shootout.
Next up for the Wolves is a showdown with West Alabama on Thursday, November 11 in Pensacola, Florida. Time for that contest is TBD. West Georgia defeated UWA 3-0 in the regular season.
