The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

The Student News Site of Macalester College

The Mac Weekly

Womenƒ?TMs soccer ends season at NCAA playoffs

By Daniel Kerwin

The women’s soccer team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament on Monday with a 3-0 loss to Wheaton College (Ill.). Macalester defeated DePauw University (Ind.) 2-1 on Saturday to set up the 2nd round match-up after Wheaton defeated their first round opponent, Aurora (Ill.) 1-0.

After being knocked out of the MIAC championship and missing the conference automatic bid, Macalester qualified for the tournament as one of 19 “Pool C” bids in the 64 team tournament. Their second round finish placed them in the top 32 teams in the nation.

“We knew we were prepared to get in” said Annie Borton ’07. “It was just a little nerve-wracking when we had to wait for the bid.”

Saturday’s first round win against DePauw was a high point for the team, Borton said “it was probably the most fun game this season.”

After being held scoreless in the first half, Rose Betzler ’10 scored the first goal for the Scots, Borton soon connected with 25 minutes left to add the insurance goal. Jenny Lee ’09 had a strong game in goal, making 5 saves. The lone DePauw goal came late in the second half of a penalty kick.

“The reaction to the weekend was very positive,” said Coach Leaney. “We beat [DePauw], and they were a very good team.”

Macalester managed to beat Wheaton last year during the regular season, but this year they posed too great a challenge.

“We were definitely the underdogs going in,” said Borton. “We’d beaten them last year, but they were a very good team.”

“We hung in against them in the first half, but it was just a case of how long we could hold them” said Coach Leaney. “There was a feeling of inevitability.”
Despite a strong defense throughout, Macalester was only able to register one shot on goal. Lee made an outstanding 11 saves in the game, but once the first goal went in Macalester was unable pose much of a challenge to a dominant Wheaton side.

“Losing was not so bad to such a good team,” said Coach Leaney.

Last year the team qualified for the NCAA tournament as MIAC champions, losing in the “Sweet 16” stage of the tournament to the University of Puget Sound on penalty kicks, their only loss of the year. This year’s MIAC champions Concordia College didn’t manage to get through the first round of the tournament, losing 2-0 to UW-Eau Claire.

Several individuals garnered honors after the season ended with Grace King ’09, Anne Kintop ’08 and Borton all being name to the All-MIAC team, with honorable mention going to Maddie Mette ’10. Borton also made the Academic All-District first team. Rachel Oman ’07 also received postseason honors, earning a place on the MIAC sportsmanship team.

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