GOLDEN, Colo. – Callie Fuhr etched her name into history Sunday night as her fifth round penalty shootout conversion advanced the #1 Colorado School of Mines women's soccer team to the Third Round of the 2024 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship over Colorado Mesa. The Orediggers (19-0-2) held a 3-1 lead inside the final 20 minutes of regulation and while the Mavericks (14-2-4) rallied to level things in the closing stages to force overtime, in the end it was the Silver and Blue that triumphed 4-2 in a thrilling five-round penalty kick shootout.
 
Mines didn't waste time applying pressure in their attacking third of the field as Bella Campos, Reese McDermott and Cloey Seltzer all took aim in the opening nine minutes of play against the RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year Keely Wieczorek but came up snake eyes. Abby Fotheringham sent a shot in the direction of Allie Lundgren from long range in the 11th minute but likewise came up empty.
 
On the next trip down the field, Lauren Clingman got the Orediggers on the board first in just the 12th minute of action. The senior from Broomfield lined up for a corner kick out of the near side on the west end of the field and played a perfect ball, bending around the near post before glancing high off the hands of Wieczorek and continuing on into the net to take the lead.
 
Right away after play resumed Lundgren made a pair of back-to-back saves in the 14th minute against Adessa Correa and Friday's hero for CMU Sauvelyne Randel, going to the ground on the first save and knocking the second shot away while lying on the side to preserve the lead.
 
Lundgren and Wieczorek each made two more saves in the final 15 minutes of the half while the Mavericks' defense added one on a shot by Lindsay Jeans as the pace of play as heading into the intermission Mines held a 1-0 lead.
 
Following a shot and a save in the 51st minute by Sarah Dunn, Colorado Mesa leveled the score in the 54th minute thanks to a penalty kick from Randel. The Mavericks were pressing home their attack deep in their final third as a ball from Carli Dare from the endline back to the top of the penalty area intended for Dunn. Afton Rasco stepped in to break up the pass as Dunn came flying in late and appeared to trip of the feet of Rasco before falling to the ground, but it was the junior from Boise who was whistled for the infraction. Randel was the one who stepped out to take the kick and while Lundgren did guess correctly on the direction of the kick, her dive went low as the shot went high into the net to level the score at 1-1.
 
Undeterred, the Orediggers responded in the 57th minute as Rasco retook the lead with a banger of a shot across the face of goal to the near post. Following the third of three throw ins on the far side of the field deep in CMU territory,  Campos took the throw from Clingman deep in the corner before playing the ball back out to Rasco at the corner of the penalty area. She uncorked a line drive off her right foot that froze Wieczorek in place as she thought it would sail wide but instead tucked inside the post to make it a 2-1 game.
 
The lead swelled to 3-1 in the 74th minute as after she was denied just minutes before, Campos teamed up with Ellise Putnam for one of the best scoring sequences of the season. A misplay by the Mavericks in their own end following a goal kick resulted in Campos regaining possession and going on the attack. Despite being in the midst of four white jerseys, she slipped a pass by one to Putnam before the senior slipped a no-look dime between two defenders, leading Campos perfectly as with a defender draped on each arm, she let rip from the top of the six and slipped it past the arms of Wieczorek to make it a two-goal game.
 
Now leading with just over 15 minutes in regulation, it seemed as if Mines was well on their way to advancing to the next round but Colorado Mesa had other ideas. With the resumption of play, the Mavericks went on a frenzied push, stacking shot after shot as they took aim six times in the following 10 minutes and forced the Orediggers to match their pace which unsettled the defense who looked to slow things down. The fast-paced attack paid off with two goals in near-successions in the 88th and 90th minutes. First it was Randel who found space after a failed clear attempt by Ava Harman caromed off Kylie Wells and to the feet of the fifth-year Maverick out of Haiti. Randel got a step on Callie Fuhr and spun off a shot from 12 yards out coming back to the near post that eluded the arms of Lundgren to make it 3-2. Then with just 58 seconds left, Shelby Steele scored on a free kick from just inside 30 yards away after Gaby Guerrero was whistled for a foul. Steele's kick into the box was over the heads of everyone, but caught Lundgren on an in between hop near the six-yard line, scooting past her unimpeded to level the score at 3-3 and send the match to overtime.
 
In the first of the extra frames, CMU had momentum squarely on their side as the Orediggers and their fans alike seemed to have had the wind sucked out of their sails. Dunn and Laura Butler each took a shot at the golden goal in the 93rd minute, but Wieczorek and Lundgren showed off their hands on the saves as 10 minutes came and went with no changes to the scoreboard. Mines narrowly averted disaster early in the second extra period. In the 103rd minute, Randel outmuscled Clingman on the far side of the field and chipped a pass ahead to Kylie Wells. Wells got a head on it and sent it toward goal on the ground, being boxed out on the pursuit by Jolie Jiricek and Fuhr. Lundgren came out to make a sliding play on the ball and may have had it for a moment before Wells split the defense and picked it off the junior's hands and chipping a left-footed shot into the net, but what would have been the game-winning goal was whistled off thanks to an offsides flag. Neither side managed any further chances for the balance of play as after 120 minutes, the score held at 3-3 as penalty kicks would be the decider in a thriller of a match.
 
Harman and Fotheringham led things off with two makes in the first round followed by two makes in the second round by Campos and Wells. Clingman was up first in the third round as her shot was saved by Wieczorek. Mira Houck looked to give the Mavericks a leg up with her shot, but Lundgren came through to make the save to keep it at 2-2 heading to the fourth round. McDermott buried her shot inside the near post and was followed by Steele, whose shot sailed high and deflected off the cross bar as Mines now led 3-2, needing just one more conversion to advance. Fuhr was the fifth woman up in the order and to the delight of the Mines faithful in attendance, wasted no time with a quick run up and a shot to the near post to win the shootout and keep the season alive.
 
NOTABLES
-Clingman's goal was the fourth of her collegiate career and first goal since September 24, 2021 when she scored two of her three goals as a freshman against Adams State, a period spanning 78 matches and 1,157 days
-Rasco's goal was her fourth of the season and 14th of her career
-Campos recorded a goal and an assist in the same match for the third time this season with her 13th and sixth of each on the season, raising her career totals to 29 goals and 10 assists through two-plus seasons at Mines
-The sophomore is now just two points away from becoming the fifth player in program history to record 70 points in a career
-Putnam's assist was her third of the season and 16th of her career as she now trails McDermott and Kayla Mitchell for fifth all-time by two
-Lundgren recorded a season-high eight saves in goal during regulation and overtime and added one more in the third round of the penalty shootout
-The Orediggers were outshot in a match for the first time this season, with CMU finishing the night with a 24-21 edge on the shot chart while both teams tallied 11 shots on goal
-Mines is now 6-4-4 all-time in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and improves to 5-5 in shootouts in the national tournament
-Sunday was the first time the Orediggers went to PKs in the NCAA Tournament since 2019 and was they first time since 2016 they came out on top in a shootout
 
UP NEXT
Mines will host once more this season at Stermole Stadium next weekend in the Third Round of the 2024 NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Championship against the #2 seed in the South Central Region #RV Angelo State next Sunday December 1 at 1 p.m.
 
Fans can keep up with Mines women's soccer on Twitter and Instagram at @mineswsoc. They can also keep up with Colorado School of Mines Athletics all year long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @MinesAthletics.