BETHANY, Okla. – The Wayland Baptist women's soccer team went down to the wire with Southwestern Christian in a Sooner Athletic Conference battle here Saturday afternoon, with the Pioneers ultimately falling in their regular-season finale, 1-0.
The match was scoreless until Melo Baca scored the lone goal in the 69
th minute, corralling the ball in front of the box and getting the ball past Wayland keeper
Iris Nevarez.
After that, the Pioneers got off a pair of on-goal shots by
Tierra Lozano and
Natalie Terry, but both were saved by Southwestern Christian keeper Hannah Tillison, who saved all six of WBU's on-target shots.
Wayland ended with a dozen shots total, compared to seven for the Lady Eagles.
Bianca Roman was responsible for half of WBU's attempts, getting two on-goal.
The loss left Wayland with a 4-7 overall record and 2-7 mark in the conference. The Pioneers are battling Southwestern Assemblies of God (5-8, 2-6) for the eighth seed in the SAC Tournament, as the top eight teams in the 10-team conference make the tournament.
SAGU is scheduled to host Texas Wesleyan (5-3, 5-3) Tuesday. Wayland is hoping SAGU loses that game, thus leaving the Pioneers and Lions with identical 2-7 conference records. But because WBU defeated SAGU (3-0 on March 20), the Pioneers would claim the No. 8 seed and likely travel to No. 1 seed John Brown (9-0), ranked No. 14, for the first round of the league tourney late next week.
Wayland has made frequent trips to Siloam Springs, Ark., to take on JBU in the past. The Pioneers fell to the Golden Eagles, then ranked No. 16, 3-0 in Lubbock back on March 3.
