Stuck in a scoreless tie at halftime of Thursday’s NCAA Division II soccer semifinals, Point Loma Nazarene looked inward.
Be us, coach Kristi Kelly told her team. No matter which way it goes.
It took mere minutes for things to start going well.
Alana Diaz scored 2 minutes into the second half, chipped in a goal in the final minutes and Point Loma Nazarene extended its scoreless streak to four games with a 3-0 win over Florida Tech in Matthews, N.C.
PLNU (16-3-1) advances to Saturday’s Division II national title game. The Sea Lions will take on No. 7 Washburn, who defeated Adelphi 1-0 in Thursday’s other semifinal, in a match scheduled for 9 a.m. PST.
The Sea Lions scored all three of their goals in the second half. Diaz broke a scoreless tie when she fired from the left post.
PLNU’s Bethany Arabe, left, and Alana Diaz both scored in Thursday’s Division II national semifinal.
(Point Loma Nazarene athletics )
“I went inside, smashed it near post, hoping it went in, and it went in,” Diaz said in a postgame news conference. “I was just over the moon and I was so excited. Not just because I scored the goal, but because this team is so special. This was a moment of relief, a moment of excitement.”
PLNU added two goals in the final 10 minutes to put Florida Tech away. In the 82nd minute, Bethany Arabe beat two defenders and hit a shot from outside the goalkeepers’ box to make it 2-0.
Five minutes later, Arabe fed Diaz for her team-leading eighth goal of the season. Diaz celebrated by doing a cartwheel.
“I was told that my celebrations might need to be amped a bit, a little bit better,” Diaz said. “In that moment, all my celebrations were going through my head, and it kept coming back to the cartwheel. I was like, ‘I’m going to do a cartwheel’ — and I did it. I almost fell over, but it was just the excitement of the moment.”
Julia Pinnell finished with a career-high eight saves for PLNU, which hasn’t allowed a goal in 360 minutes of game time.
After earning a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament, PLNU has fashioned shutout wins over Concordia, No. 16 Seattle Pacific, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs and Florida Tech.
One more opponent remains.
“They’re watching games, they’re watching opponents, and they’re dialed in. They’re here to attack the opportunity,” Kelly said of her team. “We’re grateful to be here, and we enter into that humbly, but we want to be a confident group that’s here for a strong reason. And I love that about them.”
