Last-second goal ends Simpson season

PELLA, Iowa – Liz Daniels scored the game-winning goal with five seconds left in regulation as Central handed the Simpson women's soccer team a heartbreaking, 2-1 loss in the first round of the Iowa Conference Tournament on Saturday.

The two teams were deadlocked 1-1 for the entire second half before Emily Saville found Daniels to send the fourth-seeded Dutch (12-5-2) into the semifinal round of the conference tournament. Central will travel to top-seeded Loras on Wednesday.

"This certainly was a heartbreaking way to end our season," head coach Ryan Sander said. "This one is going to sting for a while."

Stephanie Cox scored the lone goal for the fifth-seeded Storm (9-9), who saw their season come to a close. Cox scored her first goal of the season at the 40:14 mark, evening the score at 1-1.

"I thought we responded well after their first goal and continued to play our brand of soccer, which led to a goal just before half," Sander said. "I thought we had the run of the play for pretty much the entire game."

Just as it did in a 1-0 win during the regular season, Central got on the board early. This time Alayna Bailey did the honors, scoring just under 6 minutes into the game.

Goalkeeper Megan Petersen made seven saves in the final game of her career. She closes her tenure at Simpson ranked second in program history in saves (314) and shutouts (18) and third in wins (31) and goals against average (1.24).