Sept. 14, 2003
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.- - In a back-and-forth game between two top-10 teams, neither would prevail with No. 2 Santa Clara (2-1-3) and No. 7 Penn State (4-1-1) finishing in a 2-2 tie at the Virginia Nike Soccer Classic.
Santa Clara came out quickly after losing 4-1 to host No. 15 Virginia on the opening night of the tournament, and scored 1:29 into the game. Santa Clara's leading scorer Tracy Hess netted the goal after a Penn State defender intercepted a Bronco cross in the box. Hess wriggled the ball away and converted past a diving Amanda Brown into the lower left corner of the net. It was Hess' fourth goal of the season.
Penn State's Heidi Drummond evened the score in the 30th minute when Tiffany Weimer fed her a pass up the left side of the field. Drummond made the deposit to the far post past Bronco keeper Alyssa Sobolik to knot the game at 1-1. The assist continues Weimer's scoring streak to six straight games this year.
The Nittany Lions had several near-misses in the opening minutes of the second half, before Drummond found Joanna Lohman with a neat pass into the box from the right side. A shifting Santa Clara defense couldn't get there in time to prevent Lohman from striking one past Sobolik to the far post for the 2-1 Penn State advantage. The goal gave Lohman seven points for the weekend off three goals and an assist.
Santa Clara freshman forward Marian Dalmy converted on the Broncos' first shot of the second half in the 76th minute when she fired one into the upper corner of the net to tie the match up again at 2-2. The goal was Dalmy's third of her career.
The Lions applied a great amount of pressure as regulation wound down, but the game remained a 2-2 tie when the buzzer sounded, forcing Penn State's first sudden victory overtime of the season.
Six minutes into the first overtime, Santa Clara forward Leslie Osborne's header was on-course until Brown elevated to snuff-out the Bronco opportunity. Drummond made Santa Clara sweat at the other end, putting a shot from seven yards out on goal before Sobolik made the save for the Broncos to send the game into its second overtime frame.
Lohman opened the action 1:13 into the final stanza with a hard shot that was saved, before Santa Clara's Hess put one on the mark at 101:50, on which Brown got the save. Neither team would come close again, and despite the Lions' outshooting the Broncos 22-9, no one left the field a winner after 110:00 minutes, the Broncos' third such result of the year.
Jessica Ballweg, Leslie Osborne and Veronica Zepeda were named to the All-Classic team.
The Broncos host the Santa Clara adidas Classic next weekend, Sept. 19-21. The Broncos meet Georgia in their first round game at 7:30 p.m. while Stanford and Notre Dame open tournament action earlier that evening at 5 p.m.