After earning a gritty 1-0 win at home on Thursday, Nov. 7 against the Winona State Warriors, the Wayne State College Wildcat women’s soccer team earned a trip to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament as the No. 8 seed. This is the first trip to the tournament since 2019 for the program, where they also earned the No. 8 seed that year,
On Monday, Nov. 11, WSC traveled to Mankato, Minnesota, to face the No. 1 seed Minnesota-State Mankato Mavericks. It was a quick end to the tournament run for WSC, as they fell to the Mavericks 2-0 to conclude the season with a 7-7-5 record.
The game against Winona State was a must win game if WSC wanted a spot in the conference tournament, and it turned into a track meet. The game didn’t see many fouls, but there was plenty of action on both ends of the field. The game saw 29 shots combined between the two sides, 17 for the Warriors and 12 for the Wildcats. The first half saw plenty of phenomenal chances on either sides, but both goalkeepers held strong to keep the score locked at zero’s entering halftime.
The difference came in the 53rd minute, where Addison Walker won a ball on defense, took it down the right end line, and put a crossing pass right in front of leading goal-scorer Alaina Sorensen, who buried her seventh of the year to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead.
Winona State did not go down without a fight. In the 85th minute, the Wildcats conceded a corner kick to the Warriors, who appeared to score off the set piece. The referee blew the play dead, however, and after a brief conference with the assistant referee on the sideline, the play was ruled offsides, nullifying the goal. That decision proved to be costly for the Warriors, as the Wildcats held on to win 1-0.
With the Northern State Wolves loss to the University of Mary Marauders that same day, it allowed WSC to advance their season onto the NSIC Tournament.
Mankato came out of the gates flying all over the field, quickly putting in a goal in the 8th minute from Anna Van Wyngarden, who hit on from outside the box. Goalkeeper Sidney Truman couldn’t handle it, and it went past the goal line give the Mavericks the lead 1-0.
Mankato added to the lead in the 29th minute after the Mavericks forced a turnover in the attacking third, and Amara Smith hit one from outside the box that hit off the post, then ricocheted off Truman, and found the back of the net to make it 2-0. The Mavericks took that same score to the halftime break.
The Wildcats had some chances to battle back but were simply outmatched by the attacking power of Mankato, who finished with a 2-0 win to advance to the NSIC semifinals. The Wildcats were outshot 28-8 and surrendered six corner kicks, while taking just three in the contest.
The Wildcats conclude their season with a 7-7-5 record. They finished eighth in the conference and earned 22 points in the conference standings with a 6-4-4 record. This was the most standings points the program earned since 2016, where they earned 21 standings points, and was just their second trip to the conference tournament in the same time period.
This year marked the most successful under head coach Emily Hester. Besides the first trip to the conference tournament under Hester, the Wildcats saw the most wins, most goals scored and fewest goals allowed in their head coach’s fourth season with WSC.
Junior midfielder Sorensen led the Wildcats with seven goals on the season, highlighted by two games where she scored twice. She was closely followed by senior midfielder Paige Pemberton who had five. Senior midfielder Maia Vacks led the team in assists with six, and second was Pemberton again with four.
Goalkeeper Sidney Truman had an outstandings season. She faced over 250 shots and allowed just 1.15 goals per game with a .825 save percentage. She tallied 99 saves on the year and earned six clean sheets.
