Boxscore

OMAHA, Neb. -- The seven-year wait is over.  The University of Evansville women's soccer team is back in the NCAA Tournament!

Mia Tofano scored in the first five minutes, and Rocky Hearst scored in the final five to give the top seeded Aces a 2-0 victory over sixth seed Indiana State Sunday afternoon in the State Farm MVC Tournament championship match at Morrison Stadium in Omaha.  Evansville is now 6-2 in MVC Tournament title games since the league instituted women's soccer in 1996.

Now it's on to the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in school history, and the first time since 2001.  Pairings will be announced Monday night at 7:00 p.m. CST on ESPN News.  NCAA matches begin Friday at 16 sites around the country. This is the school's first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2006 baseball team won both the MVC regular season and tournament titles.

League assist leader Nicole Moyen set up Tofano for the first goal, a blast from 15 yards.  The Aces dominated the contest, but it stayed 1-0 until the final five minutes, when Kayla Lambert sent a cross that Hearst tapped in to clinch the championship for the 13-4-2 Aces.  Lambert, who scored twice in Friday's 3-1 semifinal victory over Missouri State, was chosen as MVC Tournament Most Valuable Player.  Also making the all-tourney team were goalkeeper Theresa Bagby, midfielder Kellee Widener and defender Kara Murphy.

This is the first time that a University of Evansville team has advanced to the NCAA Tournament under a first-year coach.  Krista McKendree was a key player on the most recent squad to reach the NCAAs, in 2001, and last week she and assistant coaches Matt Kagan and Corey Southers were chosen as the MVC Coaching Staff of the Year.

"I just wanted our players to experience what I experienced as a player," said McKendree, who was part of three NCAA Tournament teams.  "It's such a great feeling when players set their goals high and achieve them.

"I'm especially happy for our seniors because they've fought four years to make sure this happened.  After their first year they heard about how they turned around the program, and expectations became pretty high.  They had those same expectations, and this season they came through to reach their goals."

Eight players have been part of Evansville's program since 2005--Tofano, Hearst, Lambert, Moyen, Murphy, Widener, Julie Winkler and Danielle Brand.  That group has led the Aces to four consecutive winning seasons for the first time in school history.