Dream season comes to an end for Lady Tiger soccer team
| Final | 1 | 2 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Cowley County Community College (13-5-4, 9-3-4) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Iowa Western Community College (17-0-0, 2-0-0) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
The 11th-seeded Cowley College women's soccer team had its magical run at the NJCAA Division I Women's National Soccer Championships come to an end with a 1-0 semifinal loss to top-seeded Iowa Western Thursday morning at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, KS.
Cowley, advancing to its first-ever national tournament, finishes the season with a record of 13-5-4.
Top-seeded Iowa Western Community College needed only six minutes to get on the board in Thursday's semifinal match as Nicole Navarro Aguilar scored to give the Reivers the lead. The goal was the 18th of the season for Navarro Aguilar.
Lady Tiger goalkeeper Kanon Dehama was under pressure in the opening half and made several nice saves to keep her team in the game as Cowley trailed 1-0.
The Reivers, who had allowed only five goals in 16 games entering Thursday's contest, made scoring opportunities hard to come by for the Tigers as they out-shot Cowley 17-7 and made the 1-0 lead stand up.
Although disappointed to have the season come to an end, Cowley head coach Roberto dos Santos said the ladies have nothing to hang their heads about.
"I am so happy for what the girls accomplished this season. They showed their talent," dos Santos said. "We lost to a very good team, but played well and showed we belonged."
The Reivers are now 17-0 on the season and advance to play in Saturday's national title game at 1 p.m. at the Stryker Sports Complex. They will face the winner of the Eastern Florida State College and Arizona Western contest to be played later on Thursday.
Cowley will say goodbye to 11 sophomores who were a part of the first-ever District title win and national tournament win in the program's history and won 22 games during their two years at the school.
Dehama is one of those sophomores. The goalie from Japan, allowed just one goal in each of Cowley's three games at the national tournament.
"These sophomores wrote another piece of history," dos Santos said. "Thank you to those ladies, they are forever Tigers."