Stanford star Jasmine Aikey has an opportunity to exit on prime in her ultimate collegiate sport due to a perfectly-placed free kick Friday night time.
The Palo Alto native scored from simply outdoors the penalty space 9 minutes in to present No. 1 Stanford a 1-0 win over No. 2 Duke in a ladies’s Faculty Cup semifinal in Kansas Metropolis.
The Cardinal (21-1-2) will face No. 3 Florida State (15-2-4) within the title sport Monday at 4 p.m. The 2 Atlantic Coast Convention colleges have mixed for seven of the final 14 NCAA championships, together with FSU’s win over Stanford within the 2023 ultimate.
The Cardinal gained at Florida State 2-1 earlier this season.
“It’s about imposing your will in the final games,” Stanford coach Paul Ratcliffe stated. “Both teams have so much talent, and it’s going to be just a few moments like tonight was with the free kick that separated us from them. We have to show our character, and then when we get those critical moments, we gotta execute.”
Aikey is the nationwide chief in factors with 53 and is tied for third with 21 objectives. The senior midfielder has had a purpose contribution in all 13 of her NCAA Event video games.
After Duke fouled senior Andrea Kitahata to the left of the purpose, Kitahata went to restart play shortly, however determined to regroup. Aikey, the TopDrawerSoccer Participant of the 12 months, then lined as much as take the free kick.
“What I rely on when I’m taking a free kick is just the knowledge that I’ve taken a thousand of these and it’s just one more, not any different,” Aikey stated. “I think I saw (the goalie) cheating a little bit, or the near post was open. I just thought, you know, let me just try to get it there. But really it was just like relying on the stuff I’d done previously. Nothing special.”
Duke hadn’t allowed a purpose in its 4 earlier NCAA Event video games getting into the Faculty Cup.
The sport featured the 2 groups that misplaced in final 12 months’s semifinals, although Aikey missed final 12 months’s postseason run as a result of an harm.
It was the third straight Faculty Cup look for the Cardinal.
“I think that experience of being in two College Cups, now we know exactly what we need to do,” stated senior defender Elise Evans, a Redwood Metropolis native and Woodside Excessive graduate. “There’s so many lessons we’ve learned from the past games that we’ve had at the College Cup.”
Stanford matched its national-best whole of 23 pictures per sport, together with eight that had been on the right track, however didn’t come near its national-best 4.13 objectives a sport. Charlotte Kohler missed a breakaway two minutes into the second half, and hit the submit with about quarter-hour left.
However Aikey’s purpose held up due to lockdown protection from the Cardinal, which allowed solely two pictures on purpose. Freshman Carolina Birkel recorded the shutout.
Subsequent up is an all-ACC ultimate in opposition to the Seminoles, who beat No. 2 TCU 1-0 earlier on Friday.
“I’m just really excited to get out there one more time with the girls and play my last game as a college player,” Aikey stated.
Stanford has gained NCAA titles in 2011, 2017 and 2019, whereas Florida State has gained in 2014, 2018, 2021 and 2023.
