The Pioneers captured their 10th Division I league tournament title and their third Summit League Tournament Title with a 4-0 victory on Saturday, Nov. 3, over Omaha. Summit Leauge Tournament MVP, junior Hannah Adler (Oak Park, Calif.) was the first to score and helped lead the Pioneers to their second straight Summit League Tournament Title.
In the 41st minute, Adler headed the ball to freshman Samantha Feller (Grand Junction, Colo.). Feller attempted to score but her shot was deflected to Adler who drilled it into the goal to put the Pioneers at 1-0.
Freshman Camryn MacMillan (Littleton, Colo.) was the second Pioneer to get on the board, scoring in the 52nd minute off a pass from Feller. Feller crossed the ball to MacMillan who took one touch and then scored, shooting the ball over the hands of the Omaha keeper to make the score 2-0.
Seven minutes later, MacMillan scored her second goal of the tournament just outside of the goal-box. Senior Leah Swander (Grand Junction, Colo.) earned her fourth assist of the season, and her seventh assist overall when she crossed the ball to MacMillan, who made her shot with no hesitation.
In the 75th minute, sophomore Meg Halvorson (Englewood, Colo.) had her corner kick deflected by an Omaha player into the back of the net.
Goalkeeper and junior captain, Brittany Wilson (Littleton, Colo) made two saves in her 10th shut-out of the season and the 17th shut-out of her Denver career.
Following the game, Head Coach Jeff Hooker said “I thought we did a great job adapting to the conditions to still be able to knock the ball around quite a bit and play our game. […] I’m really proud of our group, how we played today, how we responded to a couple adjustments that we made at halftime and how we executed in the second half.”
The Pioneers placed four on the 2018 All-Tournament Team. Alder was named Tournament MVP. She was joined by Feller, MacMillan and junior Cheyenne Shorts (Denver, Colo.).
On Summit League Awards night, four Pioneers were named to the Summit League First Team, and four more were named to the Summit League Second Team and three student-athletes were named to the Freshman Team. The Pioneers also had the Freshman of the Year and Hooker was named Coach of the Year.
Feller was named Freshman of the Year following a standout season that saw her lead the Summit League in points, collecting 14 points with six goals and two assists in Sumit League play. She led the freshmen with her six goals, finished in a four-way tie with her four game-winning goals.
Feller was joined on the Summit League First Team with Adler, Halverson and junior captain, Shorts. Adler co-led Denver with 18 points, scoring six goals and having six assists. She was a part of the four-way tie in game-winning goals. Last year’s Freshman of the Year, Halvorson, helped lead the Denver midfield with six goals and three assists, totaling 15 points on the season. Shorts led a defense that allowed a league-low 27 shots on goal in eight matches. The defense allowed 4.5 shots on goal per game, the lowest in the league.
Junior captain Wilson was joined on the second team with sophomore center back Taylor Parker (Aurora, Colo.), fellow sophomore midfielder Brittney Lewis (Centennial, Colo.) and freshman forward Natalie Beckman (Denver, Colo.) Wilson has had eight shutouts this season, four of them coming in league play. Parker has played 17 of Denver’s 18 matches this season, playing 1,460 minutes on the field. Lewis has started all 18 matches this year, collecting two assists in 1,462 minutes this season. Beckman led the league in assists during the regular season, assisting on seven goals in Summit League play and nine overall.
On the All-Freshman team, Feller was joined by mid-fielder Hannah Hiatt (Parker, Colo.) and Esther Malers (Fort Collins, Colo.). Hiatt has subbed in in 15 out of Denver’s 18 matches, scoring one goal in 550 minutes. Malers has assisted on two goals in 1,284 minutes of play, starting at outside back in 14 matches.
Franks earned the Coach of the Year award in his 27th year with women’s soccer. He last earned the honor in the Summit League in 2013, and earned the honor two times in the Colorado Atheltic Conference (1994, 1995), five times in the Sun Belt Conference (2011, 2002, 2006, 2008 and 2010) as well as once in the only year that Denver was in the Western Athletic Conference (2012). The Denver Head Coach has a 338-144-44 overall record in his 27 years at Denver.
With their win in the Summit League, Denver qualifies for a spot in the 2018 NCAA Women’s Soccer Tournament.
