BALTIMORE, Md. – As the old adage goes, defense wins championships. No one knows that better than McDaniel this season. The Green Terror shut out 14 of its 17 opponents in the regular season. Two more would nearly ensure a Centennial Conference (CC) crown.

Another clean sheet on Friday in the CC semifinals advanced the seventh-ranked team in the latest United Soccer Coaches' Division III poll and second seed in the tournament to its second conference championship game and an unexpected matchup with Franklin & Marshall.

The Diplomats upended top-seed Johns Hopkins on Friday 1-0 to set up a title tilt between the No. 2 seed and the No. 5 seed that would ultimately crown a first-time CC champion.

Franklin & Marshall had 12 shutouts of its own in 18 games this season, including two 1-0 victories in the CC tournament so the wise would expect goals to be hard to come by on Homewood Field on Sunday.

That's exactly what transpired as afternoon turned to early evening.

45 minutes. Neither team could find its way through the defense.

90 minutes. Still neither defense would give.

100 minutes. Still a pair of zeros on the scoreboard.

110 minutes. Nary a tally and a double-overtime, scoreless draw for the Green Terror (17-1-1) and Diplomats (13-3-3) in the record book officially.

However, a champion still needed to be crowned and NCAA tournament automatic qualifier awarded.

McDaniel would be first to kick in the opening shootout round of five penalty kicks.

The graduate student and captain Maddie Schwartz (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield) was the first to kick and she calmly buried it into the back of the net.

Sophomore Mikaela Timmermans responded for Franklin & Marshall. Goal.

Second kickers, same as the first. Rookie Jessica Weinoldt (East Petersburg, Pa./Hempfield) for the Green Terror and junior Meg O'Callahan for the Diplomats buried shots into the back of the net.

Senior Hannah Schepers (Port Deposit, Md./St. Mark's), McDaniel's all-time leading goal scorer, kept the run of goals going. As did junior Missy Gates. 3-all in the shootout.

Senior defender Jules Dotterweich (Timonium, Md./Dulaney) calmly buried her attempt in the fourth kick of the first round. Sophomore Allison Francis did the same.

A make by Allison Storm (Abingdon, Md./Harford Tech) means it's no worse than on to the second round of five for the Green Terror. The sophomore made it 5-for-5 and sophomore keeper Grayson Jons (Ijamsville, Md./Urbana) was the only thing that stood between the Diplomats and a second round.

The kick sailed over Jons' head and over the crossbar to give McDaniel a 5-4 win in the shootout and its first-ever women's soccer championship.

Dotterweich, for her work anchoring the backline and the PK conversion in the shootout, earned the tournament's most outstanding player award.

Katherine Carstensen (Pearl River, N.Y./Pearl River) made six saves in net on Saturday to post her 11th individual shutout of the year and the team's 16th, lowering the team's goals-against average to 0.21.

Both teams had quality looks in the second half to win the game in regulation. Sara McDonald (Langhorne, Pa./Council Rock South) bounced a ball squarely off the crossbar fewer than two minutes into the second half.

Francis had a chance in the final three minutes of regulation with a high, arcing shot towards that back post that Carstensen deflected off the post before it was eventually collected and cleared.

McDaniel carried play in the first overtime while Franklin & Marshall carried play in the second overtime but neither defense gave way.

The Diplomats finished with a 16-10 advantage in shot column and 6-3 edge in corner kicks. Emily Sanko also made six saves.

Now, with the conference title secured – though in an unconventional manner only fitting of 2021, the Green Terror will sleep easy knowing that when they gather again on Monday at 1 p.m. in the Klitzberg Pavilion at the Gill Center to watch the selection show that 'McDaniel' will appear on the screen. It will just be a matter of who the first-round opponent is and where the game will be played. Save the fifth-year player Schwartz, each of the other 29 will make their first NCAA tournament appearance. But, unlike the three before in 2015, 2016, and 2017, this one is automatic.