To quote Yogi Berra, it was “deja vu all over again” for the Hoyas (15-6-2) Friday night when they punched their ticket to the Elite Eight of the women’s soccer Division I NCAA tournament.

For the fourth time this season and with 44 seconds left in chilly Minneapolis, junior forward Sam Baker drove a corner kick directly into the net to break a scoreless tie with Minnesota (14-6-3).

With temperatures below freezing and snow piled high on the sides of the field, the Blue and Gray were locked in a back-and-forth battle and looked to be heading to overtime for the second game in a row until Baker scored her fifth goal of the year on her 90th-minute corner kick.

The score ignited a wild celebration by the corner flag, but it was a mere prelude to the larger one that took place after the Hoyas held on in the final seconds of the game.

“It was a real fight,” Georgetown Head Coach Dave Nolan said after the game. “The field was frozen, and it was very difficult to get the ball moving fast. . It came down to a fight in the middle of the park. It was very territorial. [It] was a one-goal game all the way, and I’m just grateful that we got it.”

The victory was the first by a visiting team in Minnesota’s postseason history, as the Golden Gophers came into the game 7-0 at home and 5-0 at Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in playoff situations prior to Saturday’s defeat. Minnesota’s home field advantage was only augmented by the plummeting temperatures, and the cold and frozen field did the visitors no favors as the Blue and Gray struggled to play with the pace needed to break down the Golden Gophers’ five-player midfield.

“[Minnesota] was a tough place to play,” Nolan said. “I think the high today was 23 degrees. . The field, although it was a beautiful grass field, was frozen in patches so it made it very difficult for players to keep their footing. It really just came down to a war of attrition and whoever was going to do something special or [make] a mistake.”

Neither the Hoyas nor the Gophers could consistently muster offense under the adverse weather conditions, but Minnesota sophomore keeper Cat Parkhill and Georgetown senior goalie Jackie DesJardin were each called on to make game-saving stops several times. DesJardin in particular was challenged at the end of the first half when one of the Gopher forwards broke through the Georgetown backline before sending her shot wastefully wide of DesJardin’s net.

“I thought [senior] Michaela Buonomo and [freshman] Emily Menges were just fantastic,” Nolan said of his two center backs, who both went the full 90 minutes. “[The] game was a direct game, where both teams were putting the ball in [over the] top of the other team’s defenders, [and] I thought ours did a great job.”

DesJardin’s goal wasn’t threatened too many times in the second half and neither was Parkhill’s. The Hoyas’ most threatening moments tended to happen on long throw-ins into the box by Baker, which – although dangerous – didn’t amount to anything on the score sheet.

Because the field conditions were so tough, Nolan decided to extend Baker’s minutes beyond their normal point, especially in the second half.

“I felt that with Samantha’s delivery on throw-ins and corner kicks, [I] needed her out [there] longer than she normally lasts,” he said. “Thankfully, [she] made me look like a genius.”

The vast majority of the game, though, was played in the midfield. After the game, Nolan singled out two of his defensive midfielders in particular – sophomore Christina O’Tousa and freshman Kailey Blain – as “warriors in the middle for us” for their tireless work in tackling and breaking up attacks in front of the Blue and Gray back four.

But ultimately it was the Hoyas who broke the deadlock, albeit in the most unorthodox of ways when Baker’s corner kick settled into the net to shock the Golden Gophers.

“We got a little bit of good fortune on the goal in the last minute,” Nolan said. “I think as the field was getting colder it was getting even more difficult to play on, [and] Minnesota were giving as good as they were getting. . I did feel it was a very even game, and it was a toss-of-the-coin game.”

Up next for Georgetown is their bracket’s No. 3 seed, Ohio State (16-4-2), who upset No. 2 Virginia 3-2 on Saturday after scoring only once in the first two rounds.

“I don’t know what to expect,” Nolan said. “[But] right now the kids are confident. We’ve won at Maryland, we’ve won at Minnesota – two difficult places to play in different circumstances. . The kids are excited.”

A Final Four berth will be on the line for a Georgetown program that waited until this year to win its first-ever NCAA tournament berth. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Friday in Columbus, Ohio.