CHICKASHA, Okla. – Looking for a third upset victory and a berth in the NAIA National Championships, the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team took on ninth-ranked Science & Arts of Oklahoma on Friday night.
The magic carpet ride ended for the Pioneers, though, as the Drovers prevailed, 7-2.
"USAO is as good as they ever have been," Wayland coach
Shiloh Posey said. "Obviously it's not the way we wanted to finish the season, but it's better to end in the championship match than not."
It was the 10
th straight win for USAO (20-1), which moves on to the NAIA National Championships for the third consecutive year. Wayland ends its season with a mark of 7-7-3.
The seventh-seeded Pioneers, a 7-0 loser to USAO earlier this season, went into Friday's title tilt having already posted road upsets in the SAC Tournament over second-seeded, 13
th-ranked John Brown and third-seeded Texas Wesleyan, which advanced the Pioneers into its first ever conference tournament title match.
Wayland got on the board first when
Megan Attenborough's shot deflected off the USAO goalkeeper's leg and wound up in the goal.
"We played well, especially at the beginning of the first half," Posey said. "I think the hunger and desire to win fueled some of our efforts. We also made a few adjustments that helped out and kept us from giving as much space away as we did the first time we played them."
WBU's lead, however, lasted less than a minute.
"We turned around and gave one away like 30 seconds later. It was bang-bang," Posey said.
The Drovers went up 2-1 on a corner kick then scored just before halftime to take a 3-1 lead.
Posey said his team didn't hang their heads.
"We were still in it. You could tell the girls were tired, but they came back out in the second half and started off pretty well."
But the Drovers simply were too strong.
Posey said USAO hit a couple of "nothing-you-can-do-about-them" shots from close to 30 yards out.
"We gave them a little too much space at times and they capitalized on it," the coach said.
As evidence of the Pioneers not throwing in the towel, Wayland scored with less than a minute left in the game when senior
Stone Graham played a ball in and junior
Bianca Roman slid through and knocked it in the net for her second goal of the year.
"The girls never quit," Posey said.
Wayland was outshot, 25-7. Grad student goalkeeper
Maci Merket recorded 11 saves, her second-highest total all season, as the Drovers put 18 shots on-goal.
Despite the loss, Posey went away proud of the team's effort, not only Friday but all season.
"The way the girls have come together…I'm very appreciative of the every-day effort of every one of them. All of them invested a lot of their lives, and I'm very proud of them and grateful to them for their investment. They've done Wayland a great service and represented the school very, very well."
Posey called the season "a great building block" and "something to build on."
"We'll have some big shoes to fill, but I see good things ahead for us. I' proud of every one of the girls.
"We've all learned some lessons, bigger than wins and losses, that will serve them well later in life."
