Freshman Timo Pitter's provided the decisive penalty kick and his 10th goal of the season to lift No. 8 Creighton past No. 1 Akron in penalty kicks (5-4) Sunday afternoon in Akron.

Officially recorded as a 1-1 draw, Creighton is now 16-3-3 on the season and advances to play at Connecticut in the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight next Sunday at 12 p.m. Omaha time.

Akron concludes its season at 18-1-3. Reinaldo Brenes scored at 11:33 to give the Zips the lead that would stand until 82:20 when Andrew Ribeiro fed Pitter who beat goalkeeper David Meves to tie the game at 1-1.

Creighton freshman goalkeeper Jeff Gal kept his record unblemished at 12-0-1 this season after making eight saves, including one on a penalty kick early in the first overtime. CU's Jose Ribas was sent to the sideline with a red card in the 91st minute and the Bluejays played a man down for 19 minutes of the two overtime periods.

Each team made their first three penalty kick attempts, but Akron missed its fourth try against Creighton's Alex Bolowich, who came into the net just for the penalty kicks. Each team succeeded once more to knot the PK count at 4-4 leading up to Pitter's decisive winning shot on CU's fifth attempt.

The Jays are now 18-6-4 in their last nine NCAA Tournament appearances, advancing to the quarterfinals in six of their last 10 trips to the tourney.