The top seeded DePaul Blue Demons celebrated in the campus of St. John’s University after defeating the second seed Georgetown Hoyes 2-0 to claim its first Big East women’s soccer championship last Sunday afternoon.
On playing in Belson Stadium, DePaul head coach Erin Chastain said, “It’s a great venue to play in. It’s a nice turf field, it’s a great atmosphere and it was a fun place to win the championship.”
With the victory, DePaul remains undefeated with a 16-0-3 record earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Championship. The Blue Demons will be in the tournament for the third time in school history. The Hoyes fall to 11-4-5 and will have wait (until Monday, Nov. 10 at 4:30 p.m. and will be receiving votes by the NSCAA whether or not they will be in the tournament.)
“I’m really proud of our team, I think they’ve had a remarkable season to be unbeaten and to win the regular season and the conference tournament is really really special,” said DePaul, head coach Erin Chastain on the undefeated streak. “I think it just shows what kind of group we have; they’re really consistent, they buy into our game plan every game and they’re really focused on winning games and were not satisfied with our record and we’re going to keep going.”
In the 26th minute, the Blue Demons scored their first goal after junior forward Elise Wyatt shot was rejected by GU’s goalie Emma Newins, Wyatt recovered her own missed and chipped it into the net for a 1-0 lead.
In the second half, DePaul built up their lead to 2-0 in the 60th minute, when senior midfielder Amber Paul scored her eighth goal of the season from the right wing assisted by freshman midfielder Alexa Ben.
The Hoyes would outshoot the Blue Demons 13-4 in the second half, but their comeback would fall short. During the final 30 minutes of the game, Georgetown blasted a flurry of shots as freshman midfielder Rachael Corboz blasted a shot from 20 yards going wide, with a minute later following a shot by Big East Offensive and Midfielder of the Year Daphne Corboz, which was saved.
During the award celebration, Amber Paul was named the Big East Championship’s Most Outstanding Offensive Player while defender Sarah Gorden was notched as Most Outstanding Defensive Player as DePaul held their opponents scoreless throughout their two games in the Big East Tournament.
“Today’s victory was a grind, we knew that it was going to be a mental game because against Marquette, we put so much energy and obviously Georgetown is a very good team and I think every day we come out and play for each other,” said DePaul midfielder Amber Paul. I’m just so proud of my teammates and it’s so amazing to be in this.”
As for St. John’s, midfielder Jen Gibbons and Big East Defensive Player of the Year Georgia Kearney-Perry were named All-Tournament Team honors.
The Blue Demons will learn their NCAA Championship first round opponent and destination on Monday at 4:30 p.m. (ET). The Selection Show will be streamed live on NCAA.com.