SEATTLE, Wash. – The fifth-seeded University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Vaqueros women's soccer team advanced to the semifinals of the Western Athletic Conference Tournament with a 2-0 win in penalty kicks over No. 4 CSU Bakersfield after finishing in a 1-1 draw on Wednesday at Championship Field.
 
UTRGV (9-6-2, 3-3-1 WAC) advances to face off against No. 1 Seattle U on Friday at 6 p.m. It's the second time in program history that UTRGV advances in the WAC Tournament after also advancing on penalty kicks last year against CSU Bakersfield. 
 
Sophomore Elina Seppälä converted on her penalty kick to give UTRGV the 1-0 lead after senior Kinga Szemik made her second penalty-kick save. That set it up for senior Sarah Bonney who put it past CSU Bakersfield's (9-9-2, 4-4-1 WAC) Andrea Neves to clinch the win for the Vaqueros. 
 
CSU Bakersfield got the scoring started in the 37^thminute when Eszter Toth took the pass from Darian Tatum and put it in the back of the net for the 1-0 lead. 
 
Sophomore Emily Zapata knotted the match at 1-1 in the 54^thminute as she took the pass from junior Gina Steiner and got it past Neves for her eighth goal of the season setting up the penalty kicks finish. 
 
Szemik finished the match with four saves as UTRGV outshot CSU Bakersfield 27-11 and 12-5 on goal.

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