Women’s Soccer advances to finals of OAC Tournament with 4-0 win over Wilmington

Katie Kinkelaar

By Tim Glon

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ADA — Erin Stapp scored twice in a span of 1:33 to lead the Ohio Northern women’s soccer team to a 4-0 victory over Wilmington in the semifinals of the Ohio Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Tournament Thursday afternoon at the ONU Soccer Field.

The second-seeded Polar Bears (14-5-1) advance to the finals on Saturday, when they will travel to top-seeded and No. 16-ranked Otterbein for a 2 pm contest.

The Quakers and their season with a 15-6 record.

Otterbein advanced to the finals with a 2-1 victory over Capital in the other semifinal match Saturday afternoon.

With the Polar Bears protecting a 1-0 lead early in the second half, Stapp scored her 10th and11th goals of the season to give Ohio Northern a commanding 3-0 advantage with 33:21 left in the match.

She put ONU up 2-0 on an aggressive play when she deflected a Wilmington clearing attempt in front of the goal back into the net at the 55:06 mark.

She made it 3-0 just 1:33 later when Alyssa Merrick send a long through ball from near midfield and Stapp bet the Quaker goalie high on the right side from 10 yards out.

Katie Kinkelaar put the Polar Bears up 1-0 when she scored her ninth goal of the season with 2:17 left in the first half.

Katie Schaadt centered the ball from the left side, Chelsea Albert flicked it to Kinkelaar in space at the top of the penalty box and Kinkelaar found the back of the net for the first score of the match.

Jennifer Klag scored off an assist from Kaitlin Sanders with 22:31 remaining to wrap up the scoring.

“We played a complete team match today,” ONU head coach Mark Batman said. “We got goals from three different players and had strong contributions all-around. We are playing with a lot of confidence right now and we are excited about the finals on Saturday.”

Northern out-shot Otterbein 16-13 and ONU goalie Kristin DeWees stopped four shots to record her fifth shutout of the season in goal.

ONU will be making its sixth OAC Tournament Finals appearance in program history. Northern has an 0-4-1 record in its five previous finals matches.

Ohio Northern finished second in the OAC regular season standings with a 7-2 record.