It may not be the fairest way, but a soccer penalty-kick shootout certainly is one of the most thrilling ways to decide an athletic contest.

Even though Utah dominated play for most of the 90 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, the Utes had to go to a shootout against UNLV Thursday evening in the Mountain West Conference semifinals at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The two teams battled back and forth with Utah first getting an edge, then the Rebels getting a couple of chances to win. Finally, on the 18th penalty kick of the shootout, the game was decided when a Rebels' shot went wide, allowing Utah to move on to Saturday's final.

Officially the outcome was a "0-0 tie with Utah advancing on penalty kicks," according to MWC officials, but the Utes don't care that it isn't an official victory on their record. All they know is they have advanced to play BYU in the MWC finals Saturday at noon.

"I'm really proud of the girls," said Utah coach Rich Manning. "That was a good experience for them to go through, which will help us down the road."

The Utes had come into the game as heavy favorites based on their 5-1 victory over the Rebels in Las Vegas earlier this season and the fact that they were playing at home with rested legs after getting a first-round bye.

The Rebels had played San Diego State the day before and escaped with a 2-1 win.

However, UNLV marked Utah's front six players all game and relied on the superb goalkeeping of Jenna Huff to keep the Utes out of the net.

Even though the Utes outshot the Rebels 16-0 in regulation and 22-4 overall, they could never get a ball past Huff, who had six saves on the day, including one on a header by Amber Brower with 2:40 left in regulation and another on a shot by Missy Dennis with five seconds left.

"She's something special," said UNLV coach Dan Abdalla of Huff.

"She's kept us in a lot of games this year."

In the shootout, where each team gets five shots and the team with the most goals wins, Utah got the early edge when they made their first three goals and UNLV missed on its third. However, the Utes missed on their next two, leaving the door open for the Rebels. But Angie Inzana's shot was high, sending the shootout to sudden death.

Huff made a great save on a shot by Bobbie Benegas, giving the Rebels another shot a victory. This time Mason stretched out to her right to stop a shot by Jessica Brown, keeping the Utes alive.

"I just said, 'I'm sick of getting scored on, I'm getting this one,' " said Mason.

"Ashley's save was world class," said Manning. "That was a good shot, in the corner, hit hard at a tough level. She showed her athleticism there."

The shootout went three more rounds, with Julie Herdic, Esther Imotan and Tracy Stratton each scoring for Utah before Tania Lee's shot for UNLV missed to the left of the goal.

Mason had dived the opposite way and she thought the ball had gone in, until she looked around and saw her teammates sprinting toward her from midfield in celebration.

"That was a tough way to lose it," said Abdalla. "But Utah's a class program, and they played a great game. We had our chances but didn't put it away."

The Utes expect to have a tough game against the Cougars Saturday afternoon. A week ago the Utes captured a 1-0 overtime victory in Provo, which gave them the MWC regular-season championship.

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