Stanford To Face Duke In Women's Soccer Final
KENNESAW, Ga. (CBS / AP) -- Stanford had the perfect answer for Florida State's aggressive game plan: Chioma Ubogagu.
The speedy Ubogagu scored on a fast break and also had an assist Friday to lead the top-ranked Cardinal to a 3-0 win over Florida State in the NCAA women's semifinals.
Kristy Zurmuhlen and Alina Garciamendez also scored for Stanford (23-0-1), which will face Duke in the championship game on Sunday. The Cardinal dropped the previous two title games 1-0.
Florida State (18-7-1) controlled the action for much of the first 20-plus minutes, but Stanford grabbed control with an impressive stretch midway through the first half.
Mariah Noqueria cleared an FSU corner kick with a strong header toward midfield in the 22nd minute. Obogagu won the ball for a breakaway, leading to all the offense Stanford would need.
The direction of Noqueria's header might have been lucky, but the rest of the play was not.
"You're basically just clearing the ball defensively," Cardinal coach Paul Ratcliffe said. "We just caught them on the counter. The first 20 minutes, it was a difficult game for us. We had to weather a few storms."
Obogagu beat FSU forward Tiffany McCarty to the ball, and her path to the goal was nearly clear once McCarty fell near midfield. The Seminoles had just one defender back, and Obogagu moved her off line with a pass to midfielder Teresa Noyola as she raced to catch up from the right flank.
Seminoles midfielder Kristin Grubka caught up to the play, but had to slide to brake as Obogagu shifted to her right after taking the ball back from Noyola. Following a quick dribble, Obogagu fired between the legs—intentionally, she said—of FSU goalkeeper Kelsey Wys from 10 yards for her 10th goal of the season.
"We work a lot ... on transition so I think a lot of it is realizing you have more time than you think," Obogagu said. "I just tried to be calm."
Emily Oliver earned her 11th shutout for Stanford.
Florida State coach Mark Krikorian had his backs play forward early. The idea was to pressure a Stanford team that had allowed just 13 combined shots on goal and one score in the previous six games.
"We wanted to get some opportunities on their goalkeeper; not many teams had really tested her much," said Krikorian, whose team won the ACC tournament.
"We thought if we let them dictate play and control tempo, then we would be chasing the game a lot ... that was the reason for that."
Obogagu quickly went back to work after putting Stanford in front. A little more than two minutes later, the Pac-12 freshman of the year crossed a pass from the left and Zurmuhlen barely beat a sliding FSU defender to punch it past Wys for a 2-0 lead.
"She's a big-time player, and in big games she steps forward," Ratcliffe said. "In the Pac-12, one of the biggest games is usually UCLA, and she was absolutely phenomenal against UCLA and tonight you saw it again. She scored the first goal, and created the second."
Garciamendez added her first goal of the season in the 64th minute.
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