ORANGE BEACH, Ala. – The seventh-seeded Embry-Riddle (17-5) women's soccer team opened play at the final site of the 2012 NAIA Women's Soccer National Championship with a dominant performance against Robert Morris, downing the unseeded team from Chicago 6-1 in the round of 16 on Tuesday. ERAU received a balanced performance and scored in a variety of ways with all six goals coming in the first 45 minutes of play. With the win, the Blue and Gold advances to the quarterfinal round for the second straight year and will face No. 2 seed Lindsey Wilson at 11 a.m. (CST) on Tuesday.

Four different players got on the scoreboard for ERAU with junior Valerie Obita tallying two goals in the contest. Embry-Riddle outshot Robert Morris 20-10 and had an 8-3 advantage in shots on target.

The Eagles got their first goal of the game in the 10th minute off the boot of Helena Hansson. Hansson moved up from her traditional defensive position when ERAU won its first corner kick of the game. The ball fell to Martine Olsen whose shot was blocked by the RMU defense, but Hansson was on hand to collect the rebound and send a shot into the upper netting to put ERAU up 1-0.

A defensive miscue at the 14:41 mark led to ERAU's second goal as an RMU defender headed the ball back in the direction of her goal. However, RMU goalkeeper Ana Hernandez was out of position and the ball rolled into an empty for an own goal and a 2-0 ERAU advantage.

Just two minutes later, Krizzy Menez added to the Embry-Riddle tally. Helena Hansson headed Katherine Ebbs' corner kick over to Menez on the far post and the ERAU senior headed home her 15th goal of the year to make the score 3-0.

In the 20th minute, Menez was on the attack again. Allison Schultz sent a ball across the midfield in the direction of Menez. A Robert Morris defender misjudged the ball's flight, which allowed Menez to run on to it and sprint toward the penalty area. Once inside the six-yard box, Menez was able to complete a square pass to Obita who tapped in her 20th goal of the year to make the score 4-0.

Robert Morris scored its only goal of the game in the 29th minute when Florence Dadson converted on a corner kick, but in the 39th minute, Menez was brought down inside the 18-yard box and Olsen scored the resulting penalty kick to reclaim a four-point ERAU lead.

With just four minutes remaining in the first half, Obita blocked an RMU clearance attempt and immediately pounced on the loose ball. With just the goalkeeper to beat, Obita dribbled her way into a wide open shot and slotted home the final goal of the day for a decisive ERAU advantage at the half.

Embry-Riddle created several more chances in the second half, including a Kristin Sverrisdottir free kick that hit the cross bar, but ERAU was unable to find the back of the net again. On the other side of the ball, the defense thwarted any RMU attacks to preserve the 6-1 win.

Hernandez finished with three saves for Robert Morris whose season comes to an end at 16-7.