Coach expects another tight battle with John Brown

The first thing Shiloh Posey placed on his practice agenda after learning that his Wayland Baptist women's soccer team would play John Brown University in the first round of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament was "practice penalty kicks."
 
That's because three of the last four times the Pioneers and Golden Eagles have met, the match has ended in a tie.
 
"We have been practicing them all week long," Posey said of PKs, which are used to break post-season ties.
 
Wayland and John Brown battled to a scoreless double-overtime tie when they met in Plainview three weeks ago. That followed last season's 2-2 deadlock when the teams squared off in the semifinals of the SAC Tournament in Siloam Springs, Ark. The Golden Eagles advanced to the championship match after prevailing in a shootout, 4-3. JBU went on to upset top-seeded Oklahoma City en route to a berth in the NAIA National Championships.
 
"It's been double-overtime ties the last two times we played them, and I don't expect it to be any different," Posey said in looking ahead to Friday's match with John Brown in the first round of the conference tourney. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. Video streaming and live stats will be provided.
 
"Our girls want to avenge the loss from last year," Posey said. "That's definitely something on the minds of those girls who were there last year."
 
The teams also played to a 0-0 double-overtime draw in 2012.
 
Saturday's match comes five days short of a year since John Brown ended Wayland's historic season that saw the Pioneers claim their first-ever post-season victory, 1-0 over Science and Arts of Oklahoma. That win came at Wayland's Hilliard Field, which is where the Pioneers were hoping to be on Friday until they were upset in their regular-season finale on Halloween afternoon by Southwestern Christian, 3-2.
 
That loss dropped Wayland (5-9-2 overall, 5-3-1 SAC) into the No. 5 seed spot in the conference tournament bracket and forced the Pioneers to make the long trip to John Brown (9-4-3, 5-2-2), the No. 4 seed.
 
"We were disappointed the last regular-season game ended like it did, but that's given us an incentive to play with more intensity and more focus," Posey said. "The girls don't want it to end like that."
 
Focus is exactly what Posey said it's going to take to topple the Golden Eagles.
 
"They're playing at home, and obviously they don't want to lose in front of their home crowd, so we are going to have to be absolutely mentally focused," the coach said. "We have to be sure that being focused is a very conscious part of our preparation.
 
"We have to make sure we come out on point and completely focused and take advantage of our opportunities."
 
Posey felt the Pioneers were sharp when they played John Brown back on Oct. 18. In fact, he said his team always seems to be at their best against the Golden Eagles.
 
"We always seem to play very strongly against John Brown," he said. "I wouldn't say that it's necessarily a rivalry and I don't know that there is a reason, but it's always a good game. I think we're two evenly-matched teams."
 
One reason Wayland's pairing with John Brown may not be considered a rivalry is because it's been so one-sided to the Golden Eagles' favor. In fact, the Pioneers have never beaten John Brown in 10 meetings. Besides the three ties, the Golden Eagles have seven wins.
 
Posey said it's going to take his team's best effort Friday to pick up their first-ever victory against JBU.
 
"We are going to have to come out and play our very best. This is do-or-die, and we definitely don't want to go out in the first round."
 
Friday's winner advances to the tournament semifinals to take on the winner between top-seeded and 23^rd-ranked Science and Arts of Oklahoma (17-1, 8-1) and Southwestern Christian (8-9, 3-6). The semifinal match will take place Monday, Nov. 13 at the site of the higher seed.

Other first-round pairings on Friday see third-seeded Oklahoma Baptist (11-5-1, 6-2-1) hosting sixth-seeded Mid-America Christian (12-5, 5-4) and second-seeded Texas Wesleyan (10-4-1, 6-2-1) entertaining Oklahoma City (5-8-1, 3-5-1).

The championship match will be played Thursday, Nov. 13 at the home of the highest-seeded team. The tournament winner automatically advances to the NAIA National Championships.