Women’s soccer finishes historic season with loss to Aquinas Saints, 4-0
Junior midfielder Elena Ruiz (17) kicks the ball toward a teammate, away from the opponent (photo from previous game)
Photo credit: Josiah Seabaugh
By Maddy Peters
Sports Editor
Concordia women’s soccer finished their historic season with a 4-0 loss to the No. 5 Aquinas College Saints in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics round two game in Grand Rapids, Mich. Saturday afternoon.
The Bulldogs were in for a battle after their big 2-0 win against Benedictine College a couple days earlier but were prevented from putting up an offense against Aquinas. The Saints were renowned for their defense. They only allowed six goals so far in the season.
Aquinas’ first goal came early in the first half with a sixth minute goal from Marie-Louise Abild. Seven minutes later, Savannah Reese scored a second goal. Abild would score the third goal in the 20th minute. The half ended 3-0.
The last goal was scored by Saint Sydney Shenk in the 53rd minute leaving the score stagnant for the remainder of the game.
The goal scorers in the Benedictine game senior Mirarosa Gyllenswan and junior Kierstynn Garner were the only Concordia players able to get a shot off. Each recorded one shot and both of them were on goal. Aquinas had 14 shots in the game.
Senior Angela Banks played her last game at goalie with seven saves and four goals allowed.
The 2024 season will always be known as the first to win a national tournament game but holds a few other records as well. The team held the longest win streak in program history of 10. Concordia ended their season 14-7-1 which is the highest it has been since 2017 when the team went 15-2-4. Coach Nick Smith can also hold his head high knowing that he took a team to nationals in just his second year coaching at Concordia.
Garner was just able to break the most points scored in a season at 57 in the game against Benedictine. Garner is also moving up the record board in several other categories such as third in career goals at 49, fifth in career points at 116, and took the game winning goals record with 17. She was three goals shy of taking the most goals in a season record and sits at fourth on the board at 22.
