St. Louis, Mo. – The No. 2 Washington University in St. Louis women's soccer team earned a trip to the Final Four on Saturday afternoon, beating UW-La Crosse 5-4 on penalty kicks. Regulation and overtime proved to be a roller coaster, ultimately ending in a 4-4 draw, sending the game in a shootout.
 
After UW-La Crosse's first shot taker Maggie Hernandez missed the kick, senior Jessica Greven, who has been WashU's go-to penalty kicker this season, made her kick to make it 1-0.
 
La Crosse's Sera Speltz made her kick and Grace Ehlert converted hers for a 2-1 Bears' edge. Claire Cater made hers and Anna Viscovich answered with a make. La Crosse's Sydney Halstead hit her shot and Meryl McKenna made it a 4-3 lead for WashU.
 
La Crosse's Jenna Nichols converted the final PK for the Eagles but graduate student Allie Hackett sealed the deal with a make, sending WashU to the Final Four for the sixth time in program history.
 
UW-La Crosse put a point on the board first, scoring 18:01 in. Lindsey Szymanski got the ball away from a WashU defender and sent a short pass to forward Maggie Hernandez, who fired it in past a diving Sidney Conner in goal.
 
The Bears scored the equalizer just under 10 minutes later in the 29^th minute. Kate Flynn sent a cross to Grace Ehlert, who corralled the ball, turned around and fired a high shot into the net, scoring her ninth goal of the season.
 
Ehlert then scored the first go-ahead for the Bears in the 78^th minute on a pass from Greven. The goal marked Ehlert's team-leading 10^th of the season.
 
The Eagles, however, quickly tied things up in the 82^nd minute as Ellie Behnke scored on a pass from Chelsea Gale to tie things up and force overtime.
 
WashU scored 1:34 into the first overtime period as first-year Julia Moore netted a pass from Ehlert to put the Bears up 3-2.
 
La Crosse responded with two goals in the less than a minute as Speltz scored on a pass from Hernandez at the 93:58 mark and Gale followed with a goal, also on a pass from Hernandez, at the 94:52 mark to give the Eagles a 4-3 advantage.
 
The Bears battled hard which paid off at the 108:59 mark as Greven headed a ball which hit off an Eagles' defender and found Moore, who headed it in for her second goal of the game and the equalizer.
 
WashU recorded 16 shots with 10 on goal while La Crosse had nine shots with six on goal. Senior goalkeeper Sidney Conner made two saves in the net.
 
The remaining three sectionals will wrap up tomorrow. WashU will play the winner of Messiah and John Carroll which kicks off at 12 p.m.