By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Melbourne, Fla.---Entering today, the No. 13 Express women's soccer team needed a lot of help to stay alive in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) D-I National Tournament, and they got it.

The Express needed No. 5 Butler Community College (KS) to tie No. 4 Darton State College (GA) in regulation and win in penalty kicks. Not only did they need that, they needed each team to score at least one goal in regulation. Both of those things happened as Butler and Darton tied 1-1 in regulation with Butler winning 4-3 in penalty kicks.

The first tie breaker was goals against in regulation, with the second being goal differential in regulation. Each of the three games between the two teams ended in 1-1 ties with each team picking up a win in the penalty kick phase, while each team also picked up a loss in the penalty kick phase.

The Express will now take on Darton State at 1 p.m. tomorrow. Via a coin toss, Butler received a bye in the playoff and will play the winner of Owens-Darton following the conclusion of the first match.

The format of each game will be two, 10 minute sudden death periods followed by a penalty kick round if necessary.

Owens, Butler and Darton are competing for the right to go to the NJCAA D-I Women's Soccer National Tournament Final Four this weekend. The winner of tomorrow's playoff advances to those semifinals. The one-day playoff is a first for NJCAA D-I national tournament play in soccer - men's or women's.

For live updates tomorrow, please follow us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/awinningtradition) or on Twitter (@owensexpress). The most live, up-to-date information will be on Twitter.