DECATUR, Ala. – The Embry-Riddle women's soccer team celebrated a program first on Tuesday as the team upended No. 6 seed Olivet Nazarene to advance to the quarterfinal round of the 2011 NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship for the first time in program history. The Eagles, seeded 11th, overcame chilly weather, sloppy field conditions and an early (11 a.m.) start to record only the third win for the Eagles on the national stage and improve their overall record to a program-best 18-2-1.

Olivet Nazarene had the better of the passing to start the contest and held a 3-1 shot advantage through the first 20 minutes of play. However, as the half progressed, the Eagles began to control more of the possession and created more opportunities to get on the scoreboard. Perhaps the most promising of those chances came when sophomore Valerie Obita appeared to have been brought down from behind inside the penalty area, but the referee judged that there was no infraction and allowed play to continue.

The Eagles finally broke through in 42nd minute off the boot of Bjorg Olafs. Obita started the play with a cross from the right side. The ball was cleared off the line, but it only went as far as Obita who completed a pass to Olafs and the senior rifled a shot from about 25 yards out into the upper left corner to put the Blue and Gold up 1-0.

Less than two minutes later, the Eagles got on the board again. After ONU sent the ball out of play over the end line, Cecilie Henriksen took the ensuing corner kick and whipped the ball into the box. Charlotte Edeland managed to get a shot off and as both teams scrambled to get to the ball on the line, Krizzy Menez latched on to the ball and pushed it past Tiger goalkeeper Wendy Espejel to give the Eagles a 2-0 advantage at the half.

Coming out of the break, the Eagles continued to have the better of the possession, keeping the ball in the ONU half of the field in the opening minutes. Despite that advantage, the Tigers managed to score against the run of play when Janel Schmitt hit a low shot from long range into the left corner to make it a 2-1 game with just over 31 minutes left in the contest.

The goal gave Olivet Nazarene new confidence and the Tigers continued to pressure the Eagle defense, tallying four shots on target over the next five minutes. However, ERAU goalkeeper Lauren Gallant, who finished with five saves, turned back each attempt to help the Eagles maintain their one-goal edge.

In the 66th minute, ERAU stopped another ONU attack and played the ball out of the back. Obita received the ball on the left side and after taking a few touches and beating an ONU defender, she elected to test Espejel once again. The ONU netminder got to the low, driven ball, but was unable to hang on to it and it bounced off the post into the back of the net for a 3-1 Eagle lead.

In the last 15 minutes of the game, the only shot attempt came from Edeland, but it missed to the right. The Olivet Nazarene coaching staff made multiple substitutions in the closing minutes in an effort to find a spark, but they were unable to get by the Eagle defense for another goal and the game ended in the 3-1 win for ERAU.

"First of all I want to give credit to Bill and his Olivet Nazarene team," ERAU head coach Samantha Bohon said. "They're a good team and we knew that coming in. I think our teams are pretty similar; we both like to play possession style and fortunately we were able to get the game in on a fresh field."

The Eagles' quarterfinal opponent will be third-seeded Lee, a team ERAU faced during the regular season.  Game time is slated for 11 a.m.

"I'm really excited for our program and for our team," Bohon continued. "But we came here with some lofty goals and we're still short of them. We're excited and now we're just focusing on recovering and getting ready for a really good Lee team. We played them earlier this season and so we know they are a very talented group. We're looking forward to enjoying another day here and then going after it tomorrow."