OKLAHOMA CITY - When the story of the 2018 Mid-America Christian University women's soccer team is told, the narrative will match that of the team's Sooner Athletic Conference quarterfinal match on Friday afternoon. The Evangels battled hard, and played well at times, but in the end, they were just not quite able to find the scoring they needed to move on.
MACU (6-10) held the SAC's #2 seeded Oklahoma City University Stars (11-2-2) to a single goal in the first half of their match at Stars Field, but the Evangels were unable to find the back of the net until the margin had grown, and the Stars claimed a 4-1 win to advance to the SAC semifinal and end MACU's season.
MACU got the first shot of the match when Liz Lozano got into the attacking third of the field in the sixth minute, but her shot was stopped by Kirsten Thomas, and the Stars began to apply pressure. OCU generated four corner kicks in the next five minutes of action, and those opportunities led to five shots - two of which were saved by MACU's Jennifer Starwalt, and a third shot rang off the post. MACU got a pair of corner kick opportunities in the 17th and 20th minutes, but OCU fought them off, and the Stars struck pay dirt in the 24th minute.
MACU attempted to clear a ball out of their penalty area, but OCU's Sara Ricks intercepted the clearance and ripped a shot just over the out-stretched finger tips of Starwalt and under the crossbar to give OCU the 1-0 lead, and the Stars pressed for more. Starwalt made a third save in the 38th minute off a 1-on-1 opportunity for OCU's MAdi Caputo, and while the Stars held the lead at the half, it remained by just the single goal.
In the second half, it did not take long for OCU to build their lead to three. in the 53rd minute, Caputo took a curling pass from Rachel Brantley and fired a shot that hit the left goal post, but this time the ball bounced into the goal rather than out, and the Stars lead grew to 2-0. Just less than four minutes later, Caputo found Ricks in the box, and Ricks poked home her second goal of the game to push OCU's advantage to 3-0.
The Evangels did not give up, however, as just 19 seconds later, MACU's Pyper Steinweiss got the Evangels on the board. MACU sent a ball in toward the goal, and after an OCU defender gained possession, Steinweiss charged in and forced the ball loose, then she poked it inside the goalpost with her left toe and got the Evangels back within two at 3-1.
The Evangels tried to generate chances to find a second goal, and while MACU did have more possession, they only found generated two shots - one from Lozano and one on goal off the foot of Kelsey Janko. Starwalt made two more saves to keep the margin at two, but in the 82nd minute, a cross in from the wing was one-touched on to Kalen Castor who slotted it home for the goal that effectively salted the game away. It proved to be the last shot of the game, and OCU killed off the final eight minutes to claim the 4-1 win and advance to the semifinal.
Starwalt made a total of six saves in the match, and Thomas stopped a pair of shots.
The loss ends the MACU women's soccer season, and along with it, the careers of Priscilla Armenta, Jess Austin, and Brittney Stephens. Stephens finishes her career as MACU's fourth leading career goal scorer with 43 career tallies. She is also fourth on MACU's all-time points list with 94 points, and she holds three MACU records - single season goals (20; 2017), single season game winning goals (7; 2017), and career game winning goals (14).
