TAMPA -- Jennifer Crittenberger's eyes were red, her voice cracking a bit. She started and stopped and started again, searching for the right words.

''It's really sad right now,'' she said. ``But I know how much we achieved. It hurts a lot but it still feels good.''

If you're looking for an epitaph for Cardinal Gibbons' girls' soccer team's season, Crittenberger's bittersweet words are as good as any.

No one needed to ask about how much this hurt. There were tears, heads buried in hands and mostly silence. It was over.

Gibbons' magical ride through history ended Saturday in the worst possible way any soccer season can end -- in a penalty kick loss. And it wasn't just a loss in PKs -- it was a loss in sudden-death penalty kicks.

That's what cost Gibbons' (29-1-2) an undefeated season, a state title and a national title. To have it end in penalty kicks was gut wrenching.

''You can't play forever,'' said red-eyed Gibbons coach Margo Flack, who saw her team lose to Ponte Vedra in the 4A state title game 1-0 (4-3 in penalty kicks) on a day when Gibbons dominated the play on the field for 80 minutes of regulation and through both overtimes.

But Ponte Vedra stayed alive with a bunker defense that took away much of the flow of the game.

''If we play ugly and they play ugly that's OK,'' said Ponte Vedra coach Dave Silverberg. ``It was an ugly game, but we'll it any way we can.''

Silverberg won four state titles before coming to Ponte Vedra, a first-year school with six transfer players from Nease, last year's 4A state champ. He understood all too well that all the pressure was on Gibbons, the No. 1 ranked team in the nation. ``I think [being ranked No. 1] can be a burden because you're the favorite and the longer the game goes the more pressure there is on them.''

Gibbons swarmed the net at times, and had 11 shots toward the goal, but never could find the back of the net.

Nicole Grunwald, one of three seniors and a co-captain with Crittenberger, fired a couple shots that ended with remarkable saves.

Macy Huskey, Sara Trexler Sarah Motta and Kim Schumacher all came close, and junior defender Alley Buerosse, Jenny Grant, Merridith Delinois, Katie Crittenberger and Brittany D'Annunzio, one of only three seniors, all had their moments. But at every turn, Gibbons just fell short.

''We just couldn't finish today,'' Flack said. ``And if you don't finish the game keeps going. Somebody had to win, and today it wasn't us.''

``You knew it was going to come down to [penalty kicks], and going into the PKs we felt confident with our shooters and our goalkeeper, because we had won a game in PKs. In the second round, you just get one chance.''

It was tied 3-3 after the first round of penalty kicks, and Ponte Vedra won with its first kicker in sudden death.

Vedra goalkeeper Emily Vergo guessed right and stopped the first shot by Gib bons. Jackie Hellett, a sophomore who didn't realize her kick could win the game, broke Gibbons' heart with a shot into the right corner.

If that wasn't enough irony, it was Hellett who gave Vedra its best chance to score all afternoon when she found herself in the box 1-on-1 with Gibbons goalkeeper Haylee Shoaf. Shoaf made a leaping save to end Vedra's biggest threat.

But it wasn't enough.

Gibbons' historical run began with a promise from the players to Flack in October that they would be the first to reach the final four. They did, and along the way they picked up a national ranking and became as close as any team in the nation.

http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/story/905005.html