NEW ROCHELLE, NY — The second-seeded Monroe Mustangs women’s soccer team punched their ticket to the NJCAA Women’s Division I Soccer National Championship semifinals on Wednesday with a 4-1 victory over seventh-seeded Pima Community College.
Monroe improved to 17-1 and will face an opponent to be determined in Friday’s 8 p.m. semifinal.
Freshman Nicole Rivera set the pace for Monroe with three goals and an assist.
Even with the victory Monroe head coach Jonathan Garbar expected more.
“To be honest I’m a little disappointed,” Garbar said. “Give Pima credit. They fought really hard. They fought like a team that knew their backs were against the wall. It wasn’t good enough from us to be honest. We didn’t put away our chances in the first half. We didn’t play our style. The whole team is not very satisfied. We need to watch out if we don’t do better. There are some good teams here. If we don’t do better than we did today we’ll be going home soon.”
Said Rivera: “It took a little bit to get us going. We never give up. We always fight hard. We never stop.” As for her goals: “It’s about time,” she said. “It’s about time.”
Rivera put Monroe ahead in the 38th minute on a strike from the front of the net.
Meanwhile, Monroe’s defense keyed by sophomore Lorina White held Pima to two shots. Monroe had 16 shots in the first half.
Pima came out strong to start the second half and created several chances but was unsuccessful.
But Pima continued to press and finally broke through for a 1-1 tie in the 56th minute. Monroe sophomore forward Gemma Craine hit the right post in the 65th minute to give Monroe the lead.
Two minutes later Rivera notched her second goal with an assist to Craine for a 2-1 lead. And before anyone could catch their breath sophomore Melanie Formosa made it 3-1 with the assist to Rivera.
And in the 76th minute Rivera collected the hat trick with an angled shot from the right side. White recorded the assist. She also had a goal in Monday’s first game.
