Box Score

The Saints women's soccer team edged the University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars 2-1 at Saints Field on Saturday to win the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) Tournament Championship.

The victory over the Cougars (11-7-1) gives the Saints the conference's automatic qualifier to the national tournament.

The first half was stagnant for both teams as the Saints outshot the Cougars 5-0 in the period.  RiAnne Metz made just one save but it was enough to send the teams into halftime scoreless.

The Saints would get on the board early in the second half when Kelsey Kehtel (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) put in a header from a Joey Moore (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East HS) corner kick to give CSS a 1-0 advantage.

The game would become tied nine minutes later on when a Minnesota-Morris corner kick was deflected in by a Saints player to tie the game at one.  Since it was an own goal by the Saints, no goal was credited to a Cougar player.

The own goal by the Saints would turn out to be OK for CSS when Taylor Cunningham (Eau Claire, Wis./Eau Claire Memorial HS) found the back of the net in the 74th minute off of an Andrea Beatt (Maple Grove, Minn./Maple Grove HS) assist to put the Saints up 2-1.

Bailey Mahlum (Bismarck, N.D./Bismarck HS) made three second half goals to keep the scoring in check for the Cougars and the score would remain 2-1 as the clock hit zero to give the Saints the victory and the conference title.

With the victory, Mahlum improves to 7-3-1 on the season and her save total is now at 49.

Kehtel's goal gives her a team-leading 40 points and 18 goals in an impressive freshman year for the Duluth native.  Beatt's assist gives her 21 points, Cunningham's goal gives her 16 and with the assist, Moore now has two points on the season.

The Saints (16-4-1) advance to the national tournament for the fourth time in five years with the victory Saturday.  Stay tuned to csssaints.com to find out who, where, and where the Saints will play in the national tournament next weekend.  National tournament selections will be made on Monday, November 7th.