Margaret Saurin's overtime goal Friday carried Christian Brothers past Metropolitan State, Colo., into its second successive NCAA Division II women's soccer final, in which it will meet Nebraska-Omaha, a 4-year-old program that knocked off five-time champion Franklin Pierce.
Stephanie Kruse scored two second-half goals as Nebraska-Omaha (22-0-0), making its first NCAA Tournament appearance, pulled away to a 3-1 semifinal triumph at Virginia Beach (Va.) Sportsplex to reach Sunday's championship match.
The Mavericks jumped ahead after a half-hour as Stephanie Kirby blasted home a deflected cross while Franklin Pierce (18-1-2) was down a player, with Martta Makila on the sidelines waiting for the referee's permission to return to the field following injury.
Makila evened the score in the 44th minute after UNO goalkeeper Amy Price bobbled an Angela Verdoes cross. It was the fifth goal the Mavericks have surrendered all season.
Kruse tallied in the 57th and 67th minutes, heading in a Kirby cross to break the deadlock and finishing an Ashley Grace cross to provide breathing room.
''For the first 25 minutes of the second half, we really took it to them the best we have done all season long,'' said UNO coach Don Klosterman. ''We have made a point of doing that all season, but to do it to a good team at this stage was incredible. Our players really stepped it up.''
Franklin Pierce, which has lost in the semifinals three successive years after winning its fifth title in 1999, was at a disadvantage after senior defender Nicole Cheadle — the Northeast-10 Conference Defensive Player of the Year — left the match in the 20th minute with a knee injury.
Christian Brothers' 1-0 victory provides NCAA career-scoring leader Missy Gregg the opportunity to play in a national championship match.
Gregg, who returned to the Lady Bucs lineup Friday after missing one match and most of another with a torn posterior cruciate ligament, was absent from last year's title-game loss to UC San Diego after suffering a torn anterior cruciate ligament in a semifinal victory over Franklin Pierce. She has scored 134 goals in two years at CBU and 179 in a four-year career that started at Division I Dayton.
Saurin, an Irishwoman who has scored 47 goals in two seasons, tallied off a feed from Swedish midfielder Anna Rask 2:15 into the extra period. The Lady Bucs (24-1-0) had most of the play, outshooting Metro State (19-3-2), 15-2, and rolling up a 7-1 advantage on penalty kicks.