Women’s soccer wins 1-0 against Dordt, prepares to head to GPAC championship
Junior defender Hannah Kile (21) looks for an open teammate to whom she can pass the ball.
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
The Concordia women’s soccer team defeated the Dordt University Defenders 1-0 Thursday evening in Seward in the Great Plains Athletic Conference Semifinal match.
The Bulldogs are on a hot winning streak going 10 games in a row after a rough start to the season. With tough teams in the preseason and heartbreaking GPAC losses, the team has once again returned to the championship match, a first for coach Nick Smith.
Junior Kierstynn Garner shot her 21st goal of the season in the 31st minute to give Concordia the lead in the first half and the upper hand going into halftime. Senior Mirarosa Gyllenswan assisted the goal. Garner had a mistouch off the pass, but a second attempt booted it just out of the Dordt goalie’s reach into the top right corner.
Concordia outshot Dordt in the first half, going 7-6 and 5-3 on goal. Those shots came from Garner who had four with three on goal, Gyllenswan who had two with one on goal and freshman Kyana Rios, who had one on goal.
The Bulldogs also outshot the Defenders in the second half 4-1 and 2-0 on goal. All four shots in the second were made by junior midfielder Savannah Andrews.
Senior Angela Banks was the goalie for the evening with three saves and no goals allowed. This was Banks’ sixth straight shutout. She has not allowed teams to score more than one goal since late September.
The team heads to the GPAC Championship match on Nov. 12 for the first time since 2020 when they took the title. Their opponent is the No. 1 seed Hastings College meaning that Concordia receives an auto bid to the national tournament since Hastings took the regular season bid.
The Bulldogs suffered a heartbreaking 2-0 shutout just one year ago in the GPAC semifinals against Midland University on Nov. 7. For senior Molly Roberts, it was also her 21st birthday. A 22nd birthday redemption meant more than a crack at the conference title and a national bid.
“I’m so incredibly proud of this team and I feel blessed to be a part of it,” said Roberts, “I’m so excited to see what we accomplish.”
The previous national tournament run for Concordia women’s soccer was in the 2020 season was split between the fall and spring semesters due to COVID-19. The team unfortunately withdrew from their game against the No. 3 seed at the time Keiser University due to positive cases on the Bulldog team.
Thus, the last time the team had a genuine bid at the national tournament was in 2016 where the team coincidentally lost 2-0 to a No. 3 Keiser.
The team is now 13-5-1 overall. Since Hastings is the higher seed, the team travels to Hastings to face the Broncos at 7 p.m. on Nov. 12. The teams met at the end of September and Concordia lost 2-0 to Hastings.
