The CCRI women’s soccer team earned a trip to nationals with a dynamic performance in the district championship. Once they got to nationals, the Lady Knights ran into a team that delivered the same kind of performance.

Paradise Valley Community College of Arizona, the No. 6 seed, knocked off the third-seeded Lady Knights 1-0 last Thursday in the first round of the NJCAA Division I national championships, ending CCRI’s hopes for a title.

“Sometimes you need a little luck and today we did not get any,” said CCRI head coach Dennis Grassini. “But we have to tip our hats to Paradise Valley. They played better today, kind of like how we played versus Monroe Community College to get here.”

The Lady Knights came into the tournament with just one loss and a top-five national ranking. They were also coming off their biggest win of the season, a 2-0 victory over Monroe in the district championship. Monroe had beaten CCRI in the regular season.

With their ticket punched, the Lady Knights headed for Tyler, Texas, home of the championships, and they quickly found themselves in a battle.

Paradise Valley, which came in with a 17-3 record, controlled the ball for much of the first half. The Lady Knights managed to hold off the Pumas to keep the game scoreless at halftime.

In the second half, CCRI’s Carla Cano made a big play to keep the Pumas off the board when she cleared a ball that was about to bounce into the net.

Soon after, CCRI got its best scoring chance of the day when Ashley Choiniere sent her flip throw-in to the box for Katy MacAndrew, who almost got a head on it. Instead, Paradise Valley keeper Naomi Salazar snatched it out of the air.

The game stayed scoreless for awhile longer, but with 25 minutes left in the half, Paradise Valley’s Holly Benson played a free kick into a crowd of players in the box. The ball eventually deflected off Amy Eyden and into the net.

CCRI couldn’t mount a comeback, and Paradise Valley came away with the hard-fought victory.

“Our young ladies have nothing to hang their heads about,” Grassini said. “They played their hearts out. I know they really wanted to win but every year at this tournament seven teams go home unhappy.”

The loss dropped the Lady Knights into the consolation round, where they went up against another team that had been upset in the first round. Polk State College of Winter Haven, Fla., was ranked No. 1 in the final regular-season poll but lost to Johnson County in the first round.

Polk came away with a win this time, beating CCRI 3-2 in double-overtime.

Playing a better brand of soccer than they had on Thursday, the Lady Knights fell behind 1-0 on a penalty kick. They responded quickly, though, getting goals from Alexis Smith and Steph Morse to take a 2-1 lead into halftime.

But after carrying the play for most of the second half, CCRI watched Polk tie the game with 17 minutes left. The two teams eventually went to overtime and double-overtime before Ashley Palmer scored the game-winner with just 1:55 left in the second overtime.

Though that made for a heartbreaking ending, Grassini was happy with the effort.

“It was a great game,” Grassini said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top. Our young ladies played much better today. They beat Polk to almost every fifty-fifty ball and played with tremendous intensity for the entire 100-plus minutes of the game.”

The loss ended a special season for the Lady Knights, who ended up with a 17-3 record. The trip to nationals was their first since 2003.

CCRI will bid farewell to a talented group of sophomores – Cano, Choiniere, Morse, Smith, Alyssa Giudici, Kaela Rose-Gentile, Brittany Saez, Courtney Shea, Brittany Viera and Courtney Viera.

“Associate head coach Kathy Bannan and I are very proud of the effort they put forth today and for the entire season,” Grassini said. “This was a special group of players who should be very proud of their great season.”