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Second round loss ends amazing run for women’s soccer team

by Marisa Whitley

As Thanksgiving rapidly approaches, Grinnell College sports fans should be thinking about the many things they are thankful for: KGRN 1410 AM, thermal underwear and of course, the women’s soccer team.

Micheelle Fournier / The Scarlet & Black (web.grinnell.edu/sandb) The Pioneers defeated the Muskies 3-1, securing the first NCAA Tournament victory in the history of Grinnell's women's soccer program.

The Pioneer women have given students something to look forward to for more than two months. Now that their season has finally come to a close, it’s time to look back and remember why we should think of soccer and not turkey this Thursday.

The women’s soccer team had an amazing season. They posted a total of 11 shutouts and went 8-1 in the Midwest Conference, making it to the second round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to Macalester last Saturday.

The Pioneers ended the season as the MWC champions for the second year in a row and this is the first time in Grinnell women’s soccer history that a team has had a NCAA tournament victory.

To top this off, six players were awarded All-Midwest Conference titles. Rebecca Mackenzie ’09 and Julia Bradley-Cook ’06 were given Second Team All-Midwest Conference titles. Kara and Rachel Moskowitz ’06, Kate Kiedrick ’07 and Liz Carrier ’07 were given First Team All-Midwest conference titles.

This didn’t come as a surprise to many, given the stellar performance by the women’s team throughout the season. There is no question that these women are competitors.

The Pioneers went out like champions, making their presence known in the NCAA Tournament by handily defeating Lakeland last Wednesday before their loss on Saturday.

The Pioneers came back hard after Lakeland scored during the sixth minute of regulation. Mackenzie answered with a goal two minutes later, sending a solid header past Lakeland’s goalkeeper off a corner kick by Rachel Moskowitz. Kara Moskowitz scored off a breakaway in minute 26 and Gabi Maldonado-Bell ’09 scored 23 minutes into the second half.

“I think it showed a lot of heart by the team that we didn’t just give up after one goal,” said forward Katherine Ni ’09.

“They probably caught us on our heels a little bit, which is why they scored first,” said defender Emily Scholten ’06. “But one of our strengths as a team is that we can really rally. We pretty much dominated Lakeland.”

The team went up to Minnesota on Friday night in order to have plenty of time for the big game they had ahead of them.

“We had a lot of meetings where we just talked about our goals for the game,” said defender Kelly Brouse ’09.

“For every person on the team, we wrote something either to encourage them or pump them up,” said Ni.

Macalester scored three times during the match on Saturday, defeating the Pioneers 3-0, and taking the women out of the tournament.

“We lost 3-0 and that was lame … but we played with them,” said Scholten. “We created good opportunities against them and they just finished and we didn’t.”

Only time will tell how far next season will take the women’s team, but until then, the women can be happy with the way the season played out.

“It’s the best we’ve ever done,” said Scholten. “I can’t ask for a better season.”

Neither could we.

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