Sweet revenge! Florida State soccer wins third national title over BYU in penalty kicks

The Florida State soccer team got some pretty sweet redemption Monday night.

Seven months after coming up one win short of the program's third national championship, the top-seeded Seminoles (21-1-3) finished the drill Monday night in Santa Clara, Calif.

Of course, it had to come on penalty kicks, exactly how FSU lost last year's national championship match vs. Santa Clara in Cary, N.C.

The hero for the Seminoles was Yujie Zhao, who buried her penalty kick to give the Seminoles (21-2-2) a 4-3 win in the penalty kick shootout over the No. 4 seed Brigham Young Cougars (17-5-3) at Stevens Stadium after a scoreless draw through 110 minutes.

"Feels quite nice to be sitting on this side of it," FSU head coach Mark Krikorian said after the win.

"Last year, I thought that we were quite good and we had some unfinished business that we needed to address...Extremely proud of our group. I thought we played well, played smart, played hard, but BYU matched us all along the way. Heck of a national championship, heck of a final."

Before the game: Florida State soccer's bid for national title could come down to goalkeeping once again

In the semifinal: Jaelin Howell’s second half goal puts Florida State soccer within a win of national title

Reign affirmed: Florida State’s soccer team seeking to add to recent dominance with a third national title

Just over half a year after the first two Seminoles in the PK shootout vs. Santa Clara hit the post, FSU made four of its five PKs, taking them in decisive fashion.

Sophomore goalkeeper Cristina Roque came up big with a pair of saves for the Seminoles in the shootout, avenging last year's national championship loss where she failed to win the shootout for the Seminoles.

For her effort, Roque was named the Defensive Most Outstanding Player for the College Cup.

"I had a lot of trust in my teammates, everyone who was stepping up to kick the ball, especially (Yujie) finishing it off," Roque said.

"I feel like everyone's behind me no matter what way it goes. Just like how last year, it just didn't go our way and everybody was behind me then. I knew whatever happened this year, they were going to be behind me. I'm not gonna lie, it does feel better here (on the winning side)."

With her penalty kick sealing FSU's revenge tour victory, Zhao was named the Offensive Most Outstanding Player for the College Cup.

"I think I should have run to Roque first because she made a great contribution, she saved the two goals. It was a great feeling..." Zhao said of her celebration after the victory.

"It's a little unfortunate we didn't score a goal in regular time but I had faith we were going to win in PKs...I was super, super happy."

For the second time in four years and third time in eight years, FSU has won the national championship. The Seminoles' three national titles are tied with Stanford and Notre Dame for the second most in women's soccer. North Carolina still holds a significant lead with 21 titles, only one of which has come in the last 12 years.

"It's hard to win, right? It doesn't matter what the sport is, what the level is, it's hard. I think we've developed a consistency and an excellence in our program that I'm proud of..." Krikorian said.

"Every (championship) is different but every one of them is special...We'll look back at this very fondly, understanding that this national championship, while it was technically won today, this was won long ago. All of those days leading up to it.

"When I have my meeting with the team in January after a little break, what I'm going to tell them is that the next national championship is going to be won starting on that day that we start our trainings."

It was 54 degrees with a 70% chance to start the match. Regulation played out in an extremely back and forth manner with both teams creating sparse chances they were unable to take advantage of.

FSU had the first real chance when Jenna Nighswonger's shot from the top of the box in the fifth minute floated just over the bar.

However, it was the Cougars who appeared to take the lead mere minutes later when senior forward Cameron Tucker got behind FSU's back line and buried a would-be goal that was disallowed due to Tucker being offsides.

From there, the Seminoles didn't get a ton of great chances until the second half, failing to notch their first shot on goal until the 51st minute.

Both teams also had strong scoring chances that came up empty in the closing minutes. With less than a minute left in regulation, a corner kick from Yujie Zhao was headed off the crossbar by Jaelin Howell. The ensuing deflection was shot by FSU's Jody Brown off the face of a BYU defender and cleared.

Limiting what the Cougars can do

FSU was well aware of the challenge that BYU's offense presented.

For as many top-tier teams and challenging opponents as the Seminoles faced this season, Monday's game saw FSU taking on an opponent that led the country this season in goals per game (3.5) and shots per game (24.5) this season.

BYU controlled a good amount of the possession -- something FSU prides itself on normally doing -- but the Seminoles' back line, anchored by ACC Defensive Player of the Year Emily Madril, did well to largely stifle what the Cougars were able to do.

After the early disallowed, FSU did especially well to give up few chances and even fewer especially quality scoring chances.

BYU finished up without a goal and managed just 10 shots, six of which were on goal.

"Congratulations to Florida State on winning a national championship. Obviously, a really great game, a great Final Four here..." BYU head coach Jennifer Rockwood said after the loss.

"I think once you get to the last four teams standing, there's a reason for that. Florida State hasn't given up many goals at all this year...When you get to this level, it's going to be more challenging than ever to score."

Roque rises to the occasion

For how much FSU controlled possession and limited opposing chances this season, there were times this season when FSU goalkeeper Cristina Roque didn't have to do much work in goal.

In her first 14 games this season -- all the way through FSU's Sweet 16 match vs. Pepperdine -- she made a combined 19 saves, an average of 1.36 saves per match.

As the competition ramped up significantly over the final three matches of the NCAA Tournament, so did how much was asked of Roque in goal.

Even before the shootout heroics in Monday's national championship match, Roque made six saves in regulation, two more than she had in any match of her FSU career.

Over the final three matches, she recorded 14 total saves and allowed no goals.

In fact, Roque allowed no goals in the run of play over the entire NCAA Tournament. In the six matches, she allowed just one goal which came on a penalty kick late in FSU's 5-1 win over Santa Clara.

Shootout Recap

BYU's Mikayla Colohan and FSU's Clara Robbins both made their shots to start the shootout. Jamie Shepard had her shot blocked by Florida State's Cristina Roque and Heather Payne converted her penalty to give Florida State a 2-1 lead.

Unlike her teammate, Brecken Mozingo would be able to beat Roque to tie it at two. Gabby Carle had her shot blocked by BYU goalkeeper Cassidy Smith to keep it at two a piece. Roque would come up big once again to stop Bella Folino and shortly after, Jaelin Howell gave the Seminoles the 3-2 advantage.

With the Cougars down to their last chance, it would all come down to Olivia Wade to keep BYU alive. She would do just that with a strike to the bottom-left corner. Now, Yujie Zhao could walk it off. With a stutter-step approach to the ball, she froze Smith and secured FSU's third national title.

- NCAA.com

Year-by-Year National Champions

2021: Florida State

2020: Santa Clara

2019: Stanford

2018: Florida State

2017: Stanford

2016: Southern California

2015: Penn State

2014: Florida State

2013: UCLA

2012: North Carolina

2011: Stanford

2010: Notre Dame

2009: North Carolina

2008: North Carolina

2007: Southern California

2006: North Carolina

2005: Portland

2004: Notre Dame

2003: North Carolina

2002: Portland

2001: Santa Clara

2000: North Carolina

1999: North Carolina

1998: Florida

1997: North Carolina

1996: North Carolina

1995: Notre Dame

1994: North Carolina

1993: North Carolina

1992: North Carolina

1991: North Carolina

1990: North Carolina

1989: North Carolina

1988: North Carolina

1987: North Carolina

1986: North Carolina

1985: George Mason

1984: North Carolina

1983: North Carolina

1982: North Carolina

Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU soccer wins third national championship over BYU in PK shootout