Leilanni Nesbeth and her Florida State Women’s Soccer teammates took on Santa Clara in the College Cup Championship match.
Florida State was looking for their third title in seven years while trying to become the first unbeaten champion since Stanford in 2011.
After a scoreless first half, Florida State took the lead, Jenna Nighswonger scored in the 63rd minute. Florida State got a quick buildup along the left side before Yujie Zhao got the ball atop the box as a target and fed Nighswonger to her right. The sophomore cut back to her left and took one touch before unleashing a curling missile towards the bottom left corner. Her shot rang the post and banked in without any challenge from goalkeeper Marlee Nicolos.
In the 80th minute, Florida State came close to doubling their lead, but the flag went up on Yujie Zhao before scoring.
In the 86th minute, Santa Clara only needed an inch of space to make something happen and Kelsey Turnbow got way more than that on her 84th-minute equalizer. Florida State's possession game backfired when a pass for Emily Madril went wide and out to the Santa Clara striker. Madril appeared to recover but the space was more than enough for Turnbow to shake her and fire a left-footed strike past Cristina Rocque and into the bottom left corner.
The match for only the sixth time in College Cup history went into Extra Time, but the game would take more than 110 minutes to decide the National Championship. Florida State and Santa Clara went to kicks from the penalty mark to determine a winner.
Santa Clara would score their first three, with Florida State missing their first two, but scored their third. Santa Clara would score their fourth and claim the National Title.
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