DECEMBER 02, 2005

Regulation soccer game: 90 minutes

Sudden death overtime: 20 minutes

Penalty kick shootout: 5 tries per team

Winning the game on the last penalty kick and advancing to the NCAA finals: priceless

University of Portland beat Penn State in the semifinals today in the most intense soccer game I've ever seen. It was tied after 90 minutes, so then came sudden death overtime, and finally a penalty kick shootout. I thought was I was going to keel over before it was over. But UP goalie, Cori Alexander, was truly heroic, stopping Penn State's final shot. UP's Christine Sinclair then went to the line and fired a missle into the back of the net, giving UP the win.

Suffice to say that UP and their fans went absolutely nuts, myself included. Oh, the joy! My hands are still shaking from the adrenaline rush. Happy, happy day! UP remains undefeated and now it's on to -the- final game. UP plays UCLA Sunday (12/04 10am PST, ESPN2) in the championship game.

As for how UP and UCLA stack up against each other: UP is ranked #1 with a 23W-0L-1T record and UCLA is ranked #4 with a 22W-2L-2T record. But, despite UP's #1 rank and undefeated season, the "experts" are predicting UCLA to win. Because, you know, UCLA is a big, famous, prestigious school, so obviously they'll win. Ahem. Cough, cough.

Yeah, we'll see.

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