ORANGE BEACH, Ala. - Midwestern State did everything right in Friday night's NCAA Division II national semifinal at the City of Orange Beach Sportsplex.

The Mustangs limited Franklin Pierce's All-American striker combination of David Clifton and Henning Come to zero shots.

They had shots ping off the crossbar twice, the post another time and two other cleared off the touch line.

They did everything but put the ball in the net.

And, in the end, it was Franklin Pierce that advanced to Sunday's national championship game after claiming a 4-2 advantage in penalty kicks after the teams battled to 0-0 draw in 110 minutes of soccer.

"Soccer is a cruel sport," MSU coach Doug Elder said. "We've all seen last-second shots in basketball and Hail Marys in football. This is as close as it gets to that in men's soccer."

The Mustangs end the season with an 18-3-2 record, while the Ravens (16-2-4) advance to face Lincoln Memorial, a 1-0 double overtime winner over Montevallo (Ala.) earlier Friday, for the national championship on Sunday.

Midwestern State had plenty of looks as sophomore forward Kyle Kmiec saw his header in the seventh minute glance off of the crossbar, go straight down to the touch line and spin away into the box.

Fifteen minutes later, Daniel Brown nailed the right post on a crisp shot from the left wing.

The two shots would stand as the key MSU opportunities in the opening half as Mustangs' starting keeper Jeremy Turner made a pair of sterling saves to send the match knotted at 0-0 into intermission.

The Mustangs dominated play in the second half as they would shutdown the Franklin Pierce attack for a 6-0 shots advantage.

But Midwestern State once again, Brown found the crossbar on a beautiful serve from just inside the box in the 48th minute.

The Mustangs kept attack, but Franklin Pierce keeper James Thorpe made four saves to force the match into overtime.

"I don't think we were ever frustrated," Brown said. "We kept getting chances. Panick didn't set in because we thought we were going to score. Their keeper made some great saves to keep them in the game, they cleared one or two off of the line and we hit the post three times tonight. That's the breaks you get sometimes."

After fighting through two scoreless overtime sessions, the teams were forced to penalty kicks.

"When you get into PKs, it's like flipping a coin," Elder said. "You win some, you lose some. Obviously, we're very disappointed with the result."

After MSU keeper Shawn Carr stopped Michel Vitulano's first offering, the Ravens connected on four-straight penalty kicks while the Mustangs had two of their last three penalty stopped by Thorpe after Kmiec connected on the Mustangs' first kick.

"I think we're all pretty disappointed right now," MSU midfielder Tyler Murphy said. "I think in a couple of weeks we'll start to look back and see that we did make the Final Four and that's quite an accomplishment.

The disappointment right now is overwhelming."