Milligan’s women’s soccer team ended their season in the semifinals of the Appalachian Athletic Conference tournament against No.1 seed Truett-Mcconnell University Bears.
The Buffs defeated the Bryan Tigers in the quarterfinal matchup at home to make it to this round, but the Bears proved too much for the Buffs as they fell 3-1. Freshman Taylor Dawson scored the single goal off a free kick in the first half of the game.
In the regular season, the team fell to the Bears with the same score, but senior Beckah Cundiff scored the lone goal for the ladies. Last year, the Buffs defeated the Bears in the semifinals of the AAC tournament but fell to Tennessee Wesleyan University in the finals.
This match left the women’s record at 11-5-1 for the season, 10-2-1 for conference play and broke a seven-game win streak overall. The Buffs ended fourth place in the conference.
In preparation for this tournament, the ladies practiced hard in the warm and cold weather, but the training did not differ much from last year.
“We focused on fine-tuning everything,” said Sarah Owens. “We practiced a different formation to prepare for the semifinals because our coach thought it might play to our strengths and their weaknesses.”
Owens said she did not think her team expected to make it to the finals, “As an athlete, you can’t go into a game thinking it’ll be a cakewalk,” she said. “We did know that we had the talent and potential to make it to the finals if we played our game and did what we do best.”
She said it was heartbreaking for the seniors and for the others as this was their last game as a Buff. “It’s always hard when people leave each year, but we know we worked so hard to get where we are, and there’s no shame in that.”
The team is preparing to move on and focus on getting better for next season, according to Owens. “There’s no point dwelling on the losses this year, it won’t get us anywhere.”