NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Junior midfielder Rose Augustin (Silver Lake, Ohio/Walsh Jesuit) scored her seventh goal of the season in the 62nd minute, as fifth-ranked (and second-seeded) Notre Dame advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship for the sixth consecutive year with a hard-fought 1-0 win over upset-minded Oregon State on Friday night before a raucous crowd of 1,500 fans at Alumni Stadium.
    
With the victory, the Fighting Irish (20-3-1) set up yet another rematch with Florida State deep in the NCAA Championship, as the teams will square off in the postseason for the fourth consecutive season, with all four meetings coming in the quarterfinals (final-8) or later. In another ironic twist, all four games will be played at different locations, with the national semifinal encounters played at neutral sites in 2006 (Cary, N.C.) and 2007 (College Station, Texas), while last year’s quarterfinal match took place at old Alumni Field. This season’s final-8 showdown — a battle of the top two seeds in this quadrant of the NCAA Championship bracket — is slated for the Seminole Soccer Complex in Tallahassee, Fla., next weekend, although the exact date and time of the quarterfinal have not yet been announced.
    
Augustin’s goal was her third career game-winner in NCAA tournament play, and it was made possible by a brilliant individual effort from sophomore forward Melissa Henderson (Garland, Texas/Berkner), who picked up a point for the fourth consecutive game and now has 21 points (9G-2A) in the postseason this year.
    
Junior goalkeeper Nikki Weiss (Redding, Conn./Immaculate) made four saves in the Notre Dame net to earn her first career solo shutout in the postseason. Oregon State actually outshot Notre Dame, 14-12 in the contest, although the Fighting Irish held a 5-4 edge in shots on goal. The Beavers earned three of the four corner kicks, and were called for 14 fouls (along with the lone caution), compared to 12 infractions for the host school.
   
“Hats off to Oregon State — they really played an outstanding game tonight, particularly in the first half when they had us back on our heels a bit,” Notre Dame head coach Randy Waldrum said. “I thought we did a better job of adjusting to the flow of the game and started to dictate the pace better in the second half, but it was still a grind, and that’s what you have to expect when you get further along in the (NCAA) tournament. When it came down to it, Mel made a terrific run and Rose came through with a clinical finish, and that turned the momentum around for us. We also had some tremendous crowd support tonight and they really made a difference for us, especially down the stretch when we were working to close things out.”
    
The first half was played largely in the middle third of the field, but OSU (14-8-1) seemed to do a better job of capitalizing on its opportunities, outshooting Notre Dame, 5-1, and gaining all three of its corner kicks in the opening 45 minutes. The best threat for the Beavers came in the 41st minute, when Rachel Axon hit a dipping shot from outside the penalty area that short-hopped Weiss in the goal mouth, but before Jessica Velazquez could latch on to the loose ball, Fighting Irish sophomore defender/tri-captain Jessica Schuveiller (Plano, Texas/Plano West) was there to sweep the ball out of trouble and keep the game scoreless at the half.
    
Notre Dame evened out the run of play after the intermission, but didn’t get its first good look on frame until the hour mark, when Henderson burst down the right side, cut back at the top right corner of the box and unleashed a wicked left-footed blast that just twisted wide of the far post.
    
That shot appeared to awaken not only the Fighting Irish players, but the crowd as well, and it paid off a little more than a minute later. In a near mirror image to her previous run, Henderson got past one defender on the right flank, then weaved by another mark at the edge of the penalty area. Then, just as she appeared to be losing control of the ball, she alertly toe-poked a pass across the face of goal, where Augustin nearly overran the play, but put on the brakes and muscled a right-footed shot into the lower left corner of the net past diving OSU netminder Colleen Boyd (61:35).
    
Not 25 seconds after the Notre Dame goal, Oregon State almost got the equalizer, as Red Nixon (who returned as a substitute following the Augustin score) cracked a shot from the top of the box that just glanced off the outside of the right post. Boyd then had to be alert, as Augustin bid for a second tally in the 65th minute, collecting a rebound of her blocked free kick and whistling a drive through traffic to the right post that the Beaver goalkeeper did well to save with a dive to her left.
    
Boyd would make three more saves in the final quarter-hour, while Oregon State pressed for the tying goal by sending three, and eventually four forwards into the offensive third. However, the Fighting Irish defense stood fast, blocking two of the Beavers’ four shots, a third went wide, and the last — a desperation shot by Melinda Ingalls off a flurry in the final three minutes — saved by Weiss.
    
The NCAA Division I Women’s Soccer Committee will make the official determination on the date and start time of the Notre Dame-Florida State quarterfinal no later than Sunday night. Check back to UND.com for more information as it becomes available.