Photo by: Andrew Fielding
The senior class of the women’s soccer team has experience when it comes to winning the Sun Belt Conference tournament.
After winning the previous three tournaments, the Pioneers’ quest for their unprecedented fourth-straight conference championship was abated this past weekend when DU won a tiebreaker over conference foe Western Kentucky to become the No. 2 seed in this week’s SBC tournament.
DU will play No.7 seed Troy in the tournament’s third match on Wednesday in Boca Raton, Fla.
Earlier in the regular season, the Pioneers beat Troy 1-0 at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.
In the victory over the Trojans, goalkeeper Lara Campbell needed a single save to get the victory because DU dominated ball control.
Since the playoffs creation in 2000, Denver has won six of the nine Sun Belt Conference tournaments.
Denver is one of three teams, including North Texas and Florida International, to have won a SBC conference tournament.
DU’s senior class consists of midfielders Lizzy Carlson and Kelli Breidenbach, forward Mariah Johnston and defender Emily Stewart.
Johnston is the second highest-scoring player on the team with 18 points and was awarded conference player of the week in the last week of October.
Stewart has started every game as a defender, helping her freshman, Campbell, throughout the season.
During the past four years, the senior class has gone 65-19-9, which, according to College Soccer 360, makes them tied for eighth in nation in wins amongst any senior class.
If the Pioneers win on Wednesday, they will play the winner of Western Kentucky and Arkansas State on Thursday night in Boca Raton.
Despite finishing with a worse regular-season record than Western Kentucky, the Pioneers claimed the No. 2 seed thanks to a 2-0 win against the Hilltoppers on Oct. 23.
Denver finished the season with a 9-2 conference record after defeating North Texas on Saturday afternoon.
Before the game all the seniors were honored and were joined on the field by their parents.
In the 20th minute of the contest Johnston dribbled down the right side of the field and dished it to Breidenbach inside the box.
From eight yards out Breidenbach drilled the ball into the net for the game’s only goal.
Both Denver and Western Kentucky defeated their first-round opponents in the regular season, which suggests that a rematch in the conference semifinals is plausible.
The winner of that semifinal will most likely take on No. 1 seed Florida International in the tournament’s championship game.
Florida International clinched the tournament’s No. 1 seed by finishing with a conference record of 9-1-1.
They will play No. 8 seed Arkansas Little-Rock in their first round contest, which is the tournaments first game on Wednesday.
Both teams are responsible for the Pioneers two conference loses earlier in the season.
DU enters the tournament as one of the Sun Belt’s hottest team, winning seven of its last eight games.
If the Pioneers can continue their streak in the conference championship, then it will be the fourth time in four years that the senior class will make an automatic appearance in the NCAA tournament.
