By By Justin Paley

Doni-Melissa Jantzen didn’t think her sudden death penalty stroke was going to find the back of the net. She isn’t upset that it did.

The junior’s shot found its way between the legs of University of Delaware Blue Hens goaltender Megan Allen and into the cage, giving the Pride (7-2, 1-0 CAA) a thrilling victory on Sunday.

“Every time you step up, you think ‘I can win it for the team right now or I can lose it for the team right now,'” Jantzen said. “I had to calm myself down because nerves took over on some of my teammates during their strokes. It was definitely gut check time.”

After Jantzen’s shot, Delaware had one last chance to tie it, but Molly Burke’s shot was wide left, prompting the Pride to race in from the bench to mob goalie Jessica Cowperthwait in front of the cage.

You can’t blame the Pride for celebrating like it had just won a championship, especially after losing to Delaware in overtime in the regular season last year as well as in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship (CAA) game.

“There was a lot of ‘you got this!,’ a lot of psyching up and a lot of not wanting to let the team down,” Cowperthwait said of her team’s mentality heading into penalty strokes. Cowperthwait certainly did not let her team down as she came up big throughout the game and finished with six saves.

Jantzen was the second Pride player to attempt a shot in sudden death, as junior Pemba Ramdoo’s shot missed to the left. But Delaware could not capitalize, as Lindsey Piester’s shot missed wide right.

The game came down to sudden death after a scoreless second half, two 15-minute overtime sessions and two rounds of best-of-five penalty strokes.

Delaware was able to fire shots into the corners of the cage to go up 2-0 in the first penalty corner. Junior Kara McEneaney made it 2-1 when her shot found the lower right corner. After a Delaware miss, Jantzen tied it at two. On its next attempt, Delaware was again denied by Cowperthwait before both teams made their final shots to reach a deadlock at three.

In the second round of penalty strokes, Delaware took a 2-1 lead before a shot by Ramdoo tied it at two. Neither team was able to score again as the teams headed to sudden death.

The Pride was the more aggressive team throughout the contest, out shooting the Blue Hens, 20-10, but came up short on numerous occasions. In the second overtime, senior Katherine Kotowski missed to the right with about one minute left. The Pride had a penalty corner as time expired, but McEneaney’s shot went high over the cage.

Three minutes earlier, Cowperthwait came up huge, coming out of the cage to make two saves. There never should have been a second overtime though, as Pride freshman Charlia Warner missed an open cage with 1:30 left in the first overtime.

Delaware’s best chance came on two consecutive penalty corners with about nine minutes left in the first overtime, but each time the Pride defense was quick to the ball and the Blue Hens were unable to get a shot off.

Delaware almost won the game late in the second half when Jessica Cortellino found herself open, but Cowperthwait came 10 yards out of the cage to make the pretty save.

Unlike the second half, the first half was a whirlwind of offense. The Pride had its first penalty corner just two minutes into the game and although Leslie DeSimone’s shot was saved, the Pride was able to keep the ball in its offensive end. About a minute later, Ramdoo fired home a rebound from three yards out to put her team on top, 1-0, just 2:56 into the contest. It was Ramdoo’s team-leading seventh goal of the season.

The Pride out-shot Delaware, 9-4, in the first half and had six penalty corners to the Blue Hen’s three. However, Delaware tied the game with 2:31 left in the first half when Casey Howard tipped Carly Campana’s shot into the cage.

“Today’s [game] showed us where we are and what kind of team we are,” Pride head coach Kathy DeAngelis said.

While the Pride currently shares first place in the CAA with a 1-0 record, it will have to show that it will be a tough team to beat and hope it will still be on top of the standings at the end of the season.

The test continues tomorrow as the team travels to Northeastern before returning home on Sunday against Drexel.