Oklahoma City, Okla.---The major goal of the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team going into the 2008 season was to be one of the top eight teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference at the end of the regular season in order to secure a spot in the conference tournament. With their 4-3 win over Mid-America Christian Tuesday afternoon, the Pioneers all but locked up that spot.
Danielle Purcell scored two goals and had an assist in the victory, WBU's second straight over a SAC opponent. The Pioneers, 4-8-1 overall and 3-5 in conference play, are now alone in eighth place in the standings, one game ahead of Northwestern Oklahoma State, the team they beat on Saturday.
"Once again it was a total team effort," said Wayland's second year coach, Shiloh Posey. "We had a couple of starters get real sick last night and then got another one banged up early in the first half today, but everybody sucked it up and brought us through it.
"We've been working toward the same goal all season, and to finally reach that goal is extra special. We knew we had to get at least three wins to have a chance to advance to the post-season. We still need everything to fall into place like it's supposed to, but things look real promising now."
Kayla Lucus got things started for the Pioneers when she took a pass from Purcell four minutes into the game and kicked the ball off the post and into the net. MACU answered seven minutes later on a goal off the foot of Caroline Yowell.
"We worked the ball real well in the beginning and had them chasing us around. We seemed to let down a little after Kayla's goal and they capitalized on our mistakes."
The Pioneers went back up by one when Maggie Mitchell made a pass over the top of the defense to Purcell, who went top shelf over the Evangel keeper's head.
MACU once again responded, getting a goal from Lindsey McKinney at the 22 minute mark to tie the game at 2, which is where it was at the intermission.
Purcell got her fifth goal of the season, unassisted, at the 61:36 mark of the second period when she weaved in and out of the MACU defense, but the Evangels didn't waste any time responding, knotting things back up less than two minutes later.
The game looked like it was headed into overtime, but while the Pioneers were making one last attempt to get a game-winner, the MACU defense knocked the ball into their own goal with 30 seconds left, giving WBU the victory.
"It was a little bit anti-climatic for our girls," explained Posey. "We were putting pressure on their defense and caused a bad touch with their keeper out of position, so in that way we earned the goal, but everyone realizes that we didn't really play our best game today."
After six straight games on the road, the Pioneers return home to wrap up their regular season with matches against Oklahoma Baptist University on Friday at 3 p.m., and then on Monday at 4 p.m. against USAO.
Posey doesn't expect his team to let up now that they have met their original goal.
"We're going to try to do our part to put ourselves in the best possible position going into the tournament. If we can get these next two wins, we'll be able to move up in the standings and won't have to play one of the top seeds right off the bat."
