Midland passes first tournament test

The Midland Lutheran College women’s soccer team reached the semifinals of the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament Thursday after posting a 3-0 win over Dana College at Christensen Field.

Thursday’s win was a tale of two halves

“We wanted to go against the wind in the first half and our goal was to go into halftime 0-0,” MLC head coach Blake Reynolds said. “We came up big with a goal in the first half.”

Amanda Grable broke the scoreless tie. The senior found the net 19:45 into the game after Natasha Heil placed a perfect cross pass from the left side.

“It was just a great goal by a couple of upperclassmen ... really the upperclassmen have stepped up big for us over the last part of the season,” Reynolds said. “Grable’s goal lifted us and we were able to relax a little bit.”

With the wind in the second period, Midland wasted little time taking a 2-0 lead.

Just over five minutes in Hilary Hansen scored her fifth goal of the season on Heil’s second assist of the game.

Then, 10 minutes later, Midland added an insurance goal when Shannon Ostby converted on a penalty kick beating Dana goal keeper Bre Gruhn-McLaughlin.

“The build up was terrific,” Reynolds said. “We worked our way up picking off passes and then Heil beat her defender and crossed to the middle and their defender brought us down in the box.”

Gruhn-McLaughlin made two saves in the game while Midland keeper Sorina Mychackavane made five stops.

Midland outshot the Vikings 9-8.

All the top seeds won in Thursday’s first-round action. In Tuesday’s semifinals it will be No. 2 seed MLC hosting No. 3 Dordt at 2 p.m. and No. 1 Dakota Wesleyan hosting No. 4 Hastings at 1 p.m.

“The game with Dordt will be a game featuring two totally different teams,” Reynolds said. “We both create matchup problems on both sides; the winner will come down to whoever can take advantage of the other team’s mistakes.”