The Tommies lost 4-1 Wednesday in the MIAC semifinals to the two-seeded Concordia Cobbers to end the season. The Tommies finished with an 11-7-1 record.
The second-seeded Cobbers came into the playoff game with a 10-4-3 record and will move on to play Carleton Saturday for the MIAC title.
Coach Sheila McGill said the Cobbers came out strong right away against the Tommies in the first half.
The Tommies stayed tough and went into the locker room at halftime tied 1-1.
“We came out really hard,” sophomore Anna Strehlow said. “We were definitely motivated to beat Concordia because we beat them in regular season. We came out knowing that it is always hard to beat a team twice, but we were ready [and] confident.”
After halftime, though, the Tommies lost steam as the Cobbers nabbed three more goals.
“We had a few really strong moments, but a few strong moments can’t win a 90-minute soccer game,” freshman Katy Scherer said.
The Tommies ended the season with a winning record. The team beat Concordia-Moorhead during the regular season as part of a 7-2-1 run for St. Thomas over its last 10 games.
“Looking back at our season, our original goal was to make it to conference playoffs, and we absolutely did that,” McGill said. “Considering we are a very young team, who had a lot of learning to do, I think it went really well. The players really came together as a team throughout the season and continued to grow together.”
McGill is optimistic about next year, despite losing some experienced players.
“It’s going to be a continuing growth,” she said. “We are graduating five seniors, who are a strong part of our team. We will continue to grow and develop our team into a tough team in the MIAC.”
Four of the Tommies’ top five goal scorers are freshmen, which shows the team has depth.
“We lost five really talented seniors who we can’t replace, but at the same time we are a really young team with nine freshmen, so I think we’ll have some really good seasons ahead of us,” Scherer said.
Maggie Clemensen can be reached at clem0427@stthomas.edu.