Women’s Soccer Advances to Round of 32 with PK Win over NC State

The UCF Knights Women’s Soccer team got past No. 8-seed NC State in penalty kicks, 1-1 (4-2), on Sunday afternoon to advance to the Round of 32 for the first time since 2014.

Despite both teams combining for a whopping 42 total shots, 16 of which were on goal, the match was actually dominated by both teams’ defenses.

UCF GK Caroline DeLisle had a season-high eight saves and added two critical stops in PKs.

The only shot that got past DeLisle in 110 minutes of play was a penalty kick by NC State’s Annika Wohner in the 53rd minute.

The Knights (9-2-6, 7-0-2 AAC) responded with a penalty kick of their own from midfielder Darya Rajaee in the 72nd minute. It was the first goal of the season for the 5th-year senior.

Rajaee later added the final penalty kick that sent the Knights to the Round of 32.

The match comes 10 days after the Knights lost in the American Athletic Conference Tournament Semifinals to Memphis in penalty kicks.

UCF’s Round of 32 match-up will be in Los Angeles against the No. 1-seed UCLA Bruins (18-2, 9-2 Pac-12) at 10 p.m. eastern time on Friday.

The last time UCF advanced to the second round in the NCAA Tournament was in 2014, which was Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak’s second year at the helm. The Knights were also AAC regular season champions and got in as an at-large that year, and made it all the way to the Sweet 16, defeating Georgia and 4-seed Wisconsin before falling to 1-seed and eventual national champion Florida State, 1-0.

UCF faces UCLA for the second time in school history in the second round. UCLA won the only meeting back in 2010, 2-1, in Madison, Wisconsin, also in the NCAA Tournament Second Round.