Geneva stays poised, knocks out Glenbard West

Now that the postseason has arrived in girls soccer, higher seeds understand that no victory comes easy, especially when the underdog is also potentially playing its final game of the year.

In an extremely physical match in the Streamwood regional, No. 5 seed Geneva answered No. 12 Glenbard West's second-half rally to win 2-1 and advance to Saturday's regional championship against No. 4 York.

"That was definitely not the cleanest game I've ever seen," Geneva coach Megan Owens said. "It was a very rough and physical game and it gets very chippy when a team is down and knows it's not going to play anymore.

"I was happy they maintained their composure, didn't lose their focus, didn't let them get in their heads and didn't become fixated that they were getting shoved. Composure is very important when it comes to the playoffs."

Geneva (15-5-3) took a 1-0 lead in the opening half at 33:24 when Sammi Hill and Madeline Tennant used a little ingenuity on a corner kick while listening to a couple Hilltoppers communicating on the field.

Tennant looked to be setting up for a cross but Hill moved in and acted like she was going to take it. The two Vikings overheard some Hilltoppers shout "watch the short ball," so they had to improvise.

"They took away me being able to cross it on my own," Hill said. "So (Tennant) tapped it and played it back to me and I took the touch and shot it."

Glenbard West (8-8-1), which dropped six matches this spring by a single goal, still had some fight left though, knotting the score at 1-1 at 49:31 on a goal by senior Quinn Refer.

While the Hilltoppers enjoyed being at 1-all, they clearly struggled against a Geneva team that controlled the game. But, sometimes in soccer a team can be outplayed for most of a match and still come out victorious. It wouldn't happen this time though.

"Not every win is pretty," Owens said. "We possessed for most of the game and put more pressure on them overall. We did what we needed to do."

The Vikings scored the game winner at 63:25 when Kristin Rodriguez was able to clean up after another corner kick from Tennant.

"That was a great corner kick from Maddie," Rodriguez said. "One of the girls tried to get a touch but just skidded over it. We got the shot off but the keeper made a nice save and I just kind of sat there and tapped it in."

Having missed a similar shot earlier this season, Rodriguez made sure to deliver at a pivotal time in a win-or-go-home match.

"It's so stressful, you think, 'if I miss this, I just don't know,'" she said. "I just was so happy that I was able to finish it."

The Hilltoppers nearly answered the Vikings with under 5 minutes left when Lauren Davis was awarded a free kick from 20 yards out. Davis blasted a shot right off the left post. A couple inches to the right and she likely would've made it a 2-2 game.

Instead, a few minutes later the Hilltoppers season was over and the Vikings turned their attention to the Lady Dukes.

"It's going to be a very good game," Owens said. "We need to be mentally prepared for it, but we play like we did tonight we'll hold our own."