Box Score SAN ANTONIO – No. 7/9 Trinity University Women's Soccer collected its 26th Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship Sunday afternoon on a 4-0 result over second-seeded Texas Lutheran University at Paul McGinlay Field.
The Tigers (20-0-1, 14-0 SCAC) secured their fourth 20-win campaign of the last decade with the victory, the first since the 23-1 mark from the 2016 season. All of the previous three 20-win seasons led to a NCAA III postseason run of at least three matches, including the 2013 NCAA III Championship appearance at Toyota Field.
All four scores for Trinity came from different Tigers, with the lone first-half goal by Josephine McCray (Fairway, Kan. / Shawnee Mission East) as the gamewinner in the 24th minute of action, the first career goal for the junior.
Molly Sheridan (St. Louis, Mo. / Kirkwood) posted the second goal of the match in the 64th minute to break her tie and stand alone at eighth in Trinity history with 48 goals for her career. Fifty-two is the career threshold need for the St. Louis-native to reach a tie for the top-five in program history.
Sheridan's strike also put her back into a tie for Trinity's season leaderboard with Michaela Bosco (Weatherford, Texas / Weatherford) at 19 goals apiece this season, a figure that leaves both Tigers in part of a five-way tie for the ninth-best season all-time.
Bosco and sophomore keeper Lauryn Lewis (Carollton, Texas / Creekview) were named the 2022 SCAC Championship Tournament MVPs, as the offensive and defensive honorees, respectively.
No. 7/9 Women's Soccer, with the SCAC's automatic qualifying bid in hand, will await further instruction from the NCAA through Monday's NCAA III Women's Soccer National Championship selection show at 1 p.m. CT, livestreamed at NCAA.com
The Rundown
The Tigers started relatively slow in comparison to the opening minutes of the previous three matches that featured scores in 89, 88 and 38 seconds. The scoreless draw withstood a pair of on-target Trinity attempts through the first 20-plus minutes.
McCray put the first tally up five seconds into the 24th minute. Sheridan secured the ball in the right side of the 18' and found a fresh Abby Schneider (Albuquerque, N.M. / Bosque) streaking down the right sideline for a clean service to the goalie box for McCray to elevate for a header into the upper-right corner of the frame.
Trinity posted a pair of attempts on-target over the next 10 minutes between Kyra Stafford (Albuquerque, N.M. / Hope Christian) and Alana Wickham (Rockwall, Texas / Rockwall).
The second half opened with more back-and-forth play in the midfield until the Tigers began to push and collect four corner kicks in a seven-minute span starting in the 53rd, though were unable to put anything together on them.
A foul called just a few yards outside the 18' led to another set piece from a Bailey Meyer (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) free kick in the 64th minute. A well-placed loft from Meyer found an uncovered Sheridan directly between the posts for a second goal via header, doubling the Trinity advantage, 2-0.
Following the first wave of substitutions, Maya Ozymy (Dallas, Texas / Coppell) headed down a TLU goal kick as the clock ticked into the 75th minute to keep the Tigers squarely on the attack, then fed Cassie Bowers (Lafayette, La. / Episcopal School of Acadiana) in the heart of the Bulldog back line who evaded multiple defenders to find Hanna Khan (Southlake, Texas / Carroll) for a ferocious strike from inside the left corner of the 18' across the keeper's face for the top-right corner of the net.
The Bowers-Ozymy connection returned in the 84th minute to reach the eventual 4-0 tally on a quick steal by the senior midfielder that led to a fastbreak attempt from Ozymy tucked in the bottom-right corner.
All-SCAC Tournament
The following list of participants in the 2022 Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Women's Soccer Championship were named to the all-tournament squad following Sunday's contest:
Michaela Bosco, Trinity (Offensive MVP)
Lauryn Lewis, Trinity (Defensive MVP)
Molly Sheridan, Trinity
Bailey Meyer, Trinity
Madison Johnson, Texas Lutheran
Ana Parra, Texas Lutheran
Alyssa Simien, Texas Lutheran
Melissa Landon, Schreiner
Chloe Mills, Schreiner
Laren Gradt, Southwestern
Kate Nguyen, Southwestern
Up Next
The NCAA's selection show for the 2022 NCAA III Women's Soccer Championship tournament field will be webcast live at 1 p.m. CT on NCAA.com.
Last season, the Tigers played host to the opening weekend of the NCAA III postseason, defeating Hardin-Simmons University, then Pomona-Pitzer Colleges (CA) on penalty kicks to advance to the round of 16 and the campus of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio where Trinity fell, 1-0, to eventual national champion, Christopher Newport University (VA).
