EUGENE, Ore. – Playing in the Cascade Conference Tournament final for just the second time in program history, College of Idaho fell 4-1 to Oregon Tech on Friday afternoon at Civic Park.
The Yotes (14-6, 9-3 CCC) will now look ahead to the NAIA National Championship Selection Show set for Monday at 10 a.m. MT. C of I has already locked up a spot in the field and will be sent to one of 10 Opening Round host site locations. Four teams get sent to each host site, with each squad seeded 1-4 in the respective brackets.
Playing on a different field than where all of the quarterfinals and semifinals had been held, neither team registered a shot on goal over the first 45 minutes.
OIT (17-2, 11-1 CCC) found the net first in the 56th minute on a ball that was skied in the air by Mehana Ortiz after a deflection resulting from her own free kick. The moon ball into the box snuck into the upper-right corner of the net after looping downward at an angle.
Over the next 15 minutes the Yotes were the aggressors, generating two shots by
Lily Schlake and having a pair of
Payton Anderson corner kicks.
It would be the Owls who generated the next goal however, with Karly White finding Maddie Miller to make it 2-0 in the 73rd minute.
Just a few minutes later, Ortiz scored her second goal of the day in the 77th minute on an assist by Kiah Wetzell.
Larissa Wegner tallied the lone goal for C of I in the 80th minute after making a nice move to get by the last line of defense after receiving the ball from
Maddie Smith.
Ahead 3-1, OIT capped off the scoring with another Miller goal in the 86th minute. Sylvia Sloss had the assist for the Owls.
OIT posted a 12-8 edge in shots and a 6-5 advantage in shots on goal.
C of I will play in the NAIA Opening Round on Nov. 18 at a time and location to be determined. This will be the second consecutive trip to nationals for the program.
