Six-seed Gophers women’s soccer kicked off the NCAA tournament on Friday with a win over South Dakota State University at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium.
The Gophers will travel to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to face off against three-seed South Carolina in the second round of the tournament. South Carolina finished the season with a record of 11-3-7 and is coming off a 6-0 win in the first round of the tournament.
This is the first time the Gophers have won a first-round NCAA tournament game at home since 2010.
It should not surprise Gophers fans that this team made the tournament, even after their 7-6-4 finish last season. Defender Elizabeth Overberg and her teammates expected this season to be the year they made the jump.
“Being here for the past four years, I knew we had something special,” Overberg said. “I thought it was something we could achieve.”
Despite the tournament being a single-game elimination, garnering a six-seed gave the Gophers confidence heading into the match.
“I feel like this whole year we have known we’re special, and we haven’t had the recognition we think we deserve,” Overberg said.
Overberg said Minnesota saw less recognition because they are not historically a top program.
Even without the recognition, forward Caroline Birdsell learned what is needed to fill the shoes of graduating seniors and how to take care of herself off the field.
“This year taught me a lot about the mental side of the game and that there’s a lot more to soccer than people see,” Birdsell said. “When you’re all on the same page you can do things that others can’t even imagine.”
The Gophers were led by the scoring efforts of midfielder Sophia Boman on Friday. Boman put up the game-winning goal in the 48th minute and found the net again in the 55th minute.
Boman was playing like it was the last game of her career, taking five shots with four of them on goal, both were season highs. Boman is one of six starters in their last year of eligibility. Overberg understood the tournament was their last time to play together.
The Gophers played their last game at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium and they finished the season with only one loss at home.
Despite the loss coming in the Big Ten tournament, Birdsell does not feel they played badly against Penn State or need to change anything heading deeper into the tournament.
Birdsell added the team is playing the best they have all year.
The team is not worried about playing their next game at a neutral site, but rather they feel confident based on their 5-3-1 record on the road this season.
“We have a really confident team and that comes from us traveling a lot this year,” Overberg said. “We are really good at home, but we are really good on the road too.”
