Strong goalkeeping will be key as FSU women aim for national title
Florida State goalkeeper Cristina Roque might have dove and jumped more on Friday night than she needed to in a match the entire season to that point.
Roque was up to the challenge, making a season-high four saves to seal the Seminoles’ second consecutive trip to the national championship game following a 1-0 win over Rutgers in a national semifinal.
Three of those came within the final 13 minutes of the match and secured the top-ranked Seminoles (21-1-2) a chance to win their third national title and first since 2018 on Monday night when they host BYU at 8 ET (ESPNU) at Stevens Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
FSU is playing in the national championship game for the second consecutive season, for the third time in the past four seasons and sixth time ever.
“Everything just was at us (in the second half) and I know I had my defense in front of me and I feel we ended the game very strong and we’re going to use that momentum going into the next two days,” Roque said.
Roque is no stranger to making clutch saves though.
As a freshman last season, Roque came up with multiple clutch performances when FSU needed to win two matches in penalty kick shootouts just to advance to the national title game.
FSU then lost the final to Santa Clara in a shootout last May.
The Seminoles have not yet needed to play in a shootout this postseason, having won two games in overtime including a 1-0 victory over Michigan to secure a trip to the College Cup.
BYU, though, needed to win a shootout on Friday night to clinch its spot in the final and beat host Santa Clara 3-2 in penalty kicks after the teams played to a scoreless stalemate.
This will be the first ever meeting between the two teams, but the 13thranked Cougars (17-4-2), who were the No. 4 seed in their region, are familiar with quality Atlantic Coast Conference competition.
FSU will be challenged by one of the better goalkeepers in the country as Roque will be opposed by BYU keeper Cassidy Smith, who made seven saves and stopped two penalty kicks to help the Cougars beat defending national champion Santa Clara in a shootout.
Smith has allowed only 13 goals in 22 starts this season (0.65 goals against average).
“Obviously our next game is the biggest one of all of our careers, and we’re looking forward to it,” BYU coach Jennifer Rockwood said. “It obviously means quite a bit.”
Thanks to a back-row Florida State defense led by Gabby Carle, Kirsten Pavlisko, Emily Madril and Lauren Flynn, Roque didn’t need to spring into action often earlier in the season. She was averaging only 1.6 saves per match entering Friday’s game.
Roque has not allowed a goal in the run of play through the first five matches of the NCAA Tournament, allowing only one goal on a penalty kick in the second round against SMU.
But Rutgers found a way to test her skills often throughout the second half.
Roque had to dive to her left and barely got a hand on a close-range shot by Rutgers’ Amirah Ali early in the second half with the game still scoreless to prevent what would have been a gamechanging score.
After Jaelin Howell put FSU ahead with 19 minutes left, Roque made the lead stick by stifling shots by Allison Lowrey and Frankie Tagliaferri in succession as she dove on the ball to end Rutgers’ best scoring chance of the match.
BYU is playing in its first-ever College Cup and is no stranger to ACC competition, having upset second-ranked Virginia 1-0 in the round of 16.
The Cougars also feature a potent offense, which averaged 3.5 goals per game and scored 15 goals in their first four matches in the NCAA Tournament.
Mikayla Colohan ranks second in the nation with 18 goals and fourth in assists with 15 while Cameron Tucker is tied for seventh nationally with 16 goals and has eight assists.
FSU’s leading scorer Beata Olsson has 14 goals and nearly added a 15th on Friday night when an early shot on goal on a header hit the crossbar.