Gut-wrencher

Penalty kicks.

That's what Friday night's NCAA Tournament first-round contest between the Oregon State University women's soccer team and the University of Portland came down to.

For the fourth consecutive round, the Beavers, down 7-6 in PKs, needed to convert their try to extend the match.

Justyne Freud, Milan Cabrera and Morgan Kennedy had all just put home pressure-packed kicks to save Oregon State's season.

Brittany Galindo was attempting to do the same.

The senior defender's right-footed shot looked good — it looked as though it had Portland goalkeeper Erin Dees beat — but just grazed the bottom portion of the crossbar. It bounced down, and out.

That was that.

"Its really hard ‘cause I saved one, I touched a couple, and our girls were working really hard to put them away, and it's a tough way to lose," said senior goalkeeper Colleen Boyd, tears streaming down her face.

Oregon State, who reached the second round last year and the Sweet 16 in 2009, had aspirations of reaching the final four.

Instead, it'll be Portland — one of three teams in the field of 64 with a .500 record or worse, but a team that beat Oregon State 2-1 in September — facing Florida State University in the second round Friday.

Oregon State struck first when Freud put one in the top left corner of the net from 18 yards out. Freshman Brittany Olijar picked up the assist.

The goal was Freud's first of her Oregon State career.

"It is definitely something I've been working for," Freud said. "I've hit countless amounts of posts, crossbars, everything you can imagine."

After Freud's goal, the Beavers had several chances to extend the lead to 2-0. But they weren't able to convert any of those chances, and it came back to bite them.

The Pilots answered back in the 68th minute of regulation.

Portland was able to score when Boyd went out to grab the ball and Amanda Frisbie was able to get a foot on it just enough to send it into the goal, knotting the score at one.

Neither team scored again.

Junior Chelsea Buckland had five shots, with a couple of close chances, but she couldn't finish them off.

Freud also had six shots and four shots on goal.

Oregon State outshot Portland 16-9 in the 110 minutes of regulation and overtime, but that didn't matter when the game went into PKs.

The Beavers had faith in their goalie, who was an All-Pac-10 First Team selection last year and an All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention selection this year.

"I thrive on PKs. I love them, but I don't love them on the other end," Boyd said.

Oregon State fell behind early, as Buckland missed her penalty kick wide left and the Beavers entered the second round down 1-0.

But Boyd saved Portland's second attempt, and the teams traded makes until Galindo's miss in the eighth round.

The game concluded the Beavers 2011 season, and now they must move on to next year.

"I told the girls after the game that they can walk away from today's match with their heads high," said head coach Linus Rhode.

They finished out the season 13-6-2 and 7-3-1 in the Pac-12, good for third-place in the conference.

They will be losing five seniors, four of which are starters in their backline.

"The seniors have done a tremendous job with this program," Rhode said. "We have some younger players on the team that are ready to keep that group going."

"We are losing my best friends and my teammates, and it's gonna be tough to make up for them being gone in that backline," Freud, a junior, added. "They have done a tremendous job back there."

The game Friday was the first postseason game Oregon State has hosted since 1994.

The trip to the NCAA Tournament was Oregon State's third in a row.

Those are things that can never be taken away from them.

Caitie Karcher, sports writer

sports@dailybarometer.com