Box Score Shiloh Posey called the match "not very fluid" and "a little bit choppy," but there was no denying his true feelings after the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team won just its second-ever post-season match by defeating Mid-America Christian in the quarterfinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday night at Hilliard Field.
"The win," Posey said, "is sweet."
Senior
Jodian Morris scored three goals and assisted on a fourth to lead the fourth-seeded Pioneers (7-6-3) into the SAC Tournament quarterfinals against top-seeded Science and Arts of Oklahoma (11-5-2), which throttled Southwest Christian in its quarterfinal match, 6-0. Wayland heads to Chickasha, Okla., to take on the Drovers in a match set for 7 p.m. Tuesday. The winner advances to play for the SAC title next Friday with a trip to the NAIA National Championships awaiting that winner.
Posey would love to be hosting USAO since the Pioneers got a big boost from the crowd of some 250 fans on Saturday night.
"Playing in front of the home crowd always gives you a boost, and knowing it's a win-or-go-home situation always gives you a sense of urgency," he said. "We put both of those aspects to good use tonight."
They certainly did, especially Morris, who scored her 16
th, 17
th and 18
th goals of the season to break the program record, set by Emarie Holland two seasons ago.
"I'm real proud of Jodie. She scored three to get the record and also had a nice assist," Posey said. "I'm real proud of the whole team. Every person we ask to help us out is more than willing to do it. It's great to have a group like that, to do something that they may not be very familiar with in order to help us succeed as a team."
Morris scored her first goal of the evening 34 minutes into the match, a header following a cross by
Sarah Castro.
Morris made it 2-0 less than 90 seconds after halftime.
Cerila Zamarripa initiated a free kick into the box,
Julia Bianchi touched it and Morris did the rest.
The Lady Evangels cut Wayland's lead in half less than 10 minutes later on a goal by CiCi Mitchell.
"There were some tense moments, some scrambles, but our girls did a good job of getting back and playing good defense and getting the ball clear," Posey said.
The Pioneers were able to breathe a bit easier after Morris took the ball from Bianchi in the open field, beat the MACU keep and scored into a wide-open goal. That gave Wayland back its two-goal cushion with 14 minutes to play.
Then, with less than 10 minutes to go, Bianchi and Morris switched roles. This time Morris broke free and passed up a shot so that Bianchi could take an even better one, and she made it count from short range to seal the deal.
"Offensively we did a good job of getting forward," Posey said. "We had some nice combination plays and some nice individual efforts as well."
The totals were fairly even, with Wayland taking one more shot than MACU, 16-15, with one more shot on-goal, 9-8. WBU keeper
Bailey Stengler made a big difference by coming up with seven saves.
"We knew that Mid-America would come with everything they had. They're always a physical, aggressive team, so we knew we would have to play the ball quickly and try not to let them press us too hard. The girls did a great job of that throughout the game," Posey said.
"Overall, I thought it was a little bit choppy…it just wasn't very fluid. But our girls stayed with what they do best. Every time they could, they put the ball on the ground and played it with their feet and possessed the ball. That's what we do better than playing the long-ball style.
"The girls did a good job keeping their heads and a great job of doing what we asked them to do as far as the way we played the game tonight. It seemed a little bit of a struggle, but we battled through that and did a good job."
It was Morris' second career hat-trick and the eighth in program history; Holland had four three-goal matches.
Posey didn't seem too surprised that his team was able to win as handily as it did, even after playing MACU to a 1-1 double-overtime tie on the same field four weeks earlier.
"We had a couple of good talks this week. We hit a bit of a lull in practice the middle of the week, but we got those things out of our system and got it straightened out," the coach said. "This team wants to win; they're enjoying what they're doing right now. We have a little bit of momentum, and it's nice to watch them play with that momentum and with that mentality."
The Pioneers will try to keep it rolling against conference champ USAO, which had won eight straight – a streak that started with a 3-2 win over Wayland in Chickasha to open conference play – before falling in the regular-season finale to Oklahoma City, 2-0. The Drovers bounced back in a big win with their 6-0 blanking of Southwestern Christian.
"The win is a sweet thing. We'll enjoy it tonight and then get back to work. We basically only have a day-and-a-half between games, so we need to get busy and correct some things we did tonight.
"We'll be ready on Tuesday."
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