The women’s soccer team will be the first Buffalo team of any sport in the D-I era to compete in an NCAA Tournament after clinching a conference title Sunday.
Head coach Shawn Burke was adamant that 2014 wouldn’t be a rebuilding season.
When accepting the head coach position of the women’s soccer team in January, Shawn Burke told the Buffalo administration that the team had the talent to win this season.
It appears he was right after junior defender Jackie Hall’s game-winning goal Sunday made it a championship season.
The No. 49 Bulls (16-2-3, 12-0-2 Mid-American Conference) won their first-ever MAC Championship Sunday with a 1-0 victory over Western Michigan (12-8-1, 5-6-1 MAC) at UB Stadium. The win ends Buffalo’s season with an undefeated conference record for the first time and gives the team an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament starting Nov. 14.
Buffalo finds out its first-round opponent Monday.
After winning the championship Sunday afternoon, Burke recalled what he first told his team before the season.
“Working on the little things,” Burke said. “When I took over back in January, it’s all about the details. When you take care of the little things, the big things just fall into place. The girls did just that. It came down to the wire, but all the credit to our girls for getting the result. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”
After a scoreless first half, Hall scored the only goal of the game off a rebound from senior forward Katie Roberts’ header on goal. The score came with just 8:33 left in regulation. It was Hall’s fourth goal of the season and third game-winning goal.
“I just did anything I can to get position,” Hall said. “It was just a good service. [Roberts] got something on it and it just ricocheted off the goal enough for me to get something on it and put it in the back of the net.”
Goalkeeper Laura Dougall capped off a historic freshman season with a three-save shutout – her program-record 12th of the season. Dougall’s final save came off a Western Michigan corner kick with 2:45 left in the game to preserve the Bulls’1-0 lead.
“This feels great,” Dougall said. “Coming in, I wanted to break records, I wanted to make an instant impact on this team, and this team has done an amazing job at letting me come in and make my dreams come true. I couldn’t have asked for more than going to the NCAA Tournament.”
The Bulls played well on the defensive end as they have all season, allowing the Broncos just three shots on goal and nine total shots for the entire game. The Broncos had just three total shots in the second half.
Senior defender Courtney Mann was emotional after the win and said she had always dreamed of going to the NCAA Tournament.
“You usually don’t believe when people say ‘I’m speechless,’ but I’m speechless,” Mann said. “In the past four years, I felt like I’ve been working my whole life for this moment, so it’s pretty indescribable. Once Burke was named head coach, we realized we had everything to win a championship, it just needed to be put into place.”
The Bulls had four players named to the All-MAC Tournament team: Hall, Mann, senior midfielder Megan Giesen and sophomore midfielder Andrea Niper.
Hall and Niper each scored two goals in the tournament. For Niper, it was her first two career goals – the first coming in Friday night’s double overtime game-winning goal in the semifinal against Ball State. Giesen and Mann was a part of a dominant Buffalo defense that allowed just one goal and 11 shots on goal in three tournament games.
The MAC Championship caps off a historic season for Buffalo in which the team set several program records. The Bulls won the most overall games and MAC games in program history and are now on the school’s longest ever unbeaten streak (14 games). Buffalo’s No. 49 national ranking is also its highest-ever.
The Bulls also swept all major conference awards Thursday, as Burke won Head Coach of the Year, Dougall won Freshman of the Year, Roberts won Offensive Player of the Year and Hall came away with the Defensive Player of the Year award.
Buffalo had struggled since joining the MAC in 1998, winning just one conference tournament match and only finishing with a winning conference record five times prior to this season.
Burke was an assistant coach for five years under former head coach Michael Thomas, who was fired after a 6-9-3 finish last season in which Buffalo failed to qualify for the MAC tournament. Buffalo has now won 12 MAC games – including postseason matches – after totaling 13 conference victories previous six seasons.
By winning the conference championship, the Bulls are guaranteed a spot in the NCAA Tournament. The Division I women’s selection show will stream online on the NCAA website Monday at 4 p.m.
email: sports@ubspectrum.com
Photo: Courtesy of UB Athletics
