OKLAHOMA CITY – The Mid-America Christian women's soccer team will look to build upon its success from last season as the Evangels will open the split 2020-21 campaign with a 3 p.m. road match at Bacone College on Saturday.
LAST SEASON AT A GLANCE
The Evangels are coming off one of the best seasons in program history as MACU wrapped up the 2019 campaign with the second-most wins in team history with a 14-6-1 record and placed fourth in the Sooner Athletic Conference standings with a 6-2-1 league mark.
Mid-America Christian ended up coming away with its fourth NCCAA Central Region Championship after topping Southwestern Christian (Okla.) 4-0 on Nov. 22 at Evangel Field and ended up winning its first match at nationals since 2015 with a 4-nil shutout over Erskine (S.C.) in the opening match of pool play.
The Evangels picked up some big wins in Sooner Athletic Conference play, including a 1-0 victory over Texas Wesleyan on Nov. 2 thanks to Paola Camacho's game-winning header in the 104th minute of overtime to lock up the team's first SAC Tournament home game since 2010. A week later, MACU followed it up by getting its first SAC Tournament win since 2010 as well as the Evangels held off Oklahoma City in a 1-0 win after Ariadna Ramirez scored the game-winner in the 28th minute.
MACU turned in its most prolific offensive season in the history of the team a season ago, scoring an NAIA era program record 75 goals to average 3.6 goals per game, topping the previous record set by the 2017 squad of 67 goals at a 3.2 gpg average. With 42 assists, the Evangels tallied a total 193 team points, which also eclipsed the 2017 record of 180.
Defensively, MACU only allowed 29 goals to find the back of their net, allowing opponents just a 1.4 goals against average while pitching 11 shutouts to eclipse the double-digit shutout mark for only the second time in program history.
THIS SEASON AT A GLANCE
The Evangels return a pair of NCCAA All-Americans in Second Team sophomore defender Brooklyn Fink as well as Second Team redshirt sophomore forward Kyleigh Gibson. Last season, Fink was tabbed the Sooner Athletic Conference Co-Defensive Player of the Year due to her phenomenal work on the backline as well as on free kicks and throw-ins, while Gibson earned All-SAC Second Team accolades after finishing in a tie for fourth with senior teammate Liz Lozano for the most goals in the conference with 14.
On top of being an All-SAC Second Team honoree a year ago, Lozano was the squad's leader in goals (14), assists (6) and points (34) and will look to continue to provide a spark in the middle of the MACU attack. Senior forward Sylvie Willie could also provide an offensive punch for the MACU attack as well after finishing third on the squad with nine goals.
Senior goalkeeper Jennifer Starwalt will be entering her fourth season as the squad's starting goalkeeper, earning All-SAC First Team honors last season after holding opponents to a 1.45 goals against average and made 83 saves on a .748 save percentage.
SCOUTING THE WARRIORS
Bacone will look to improve upon a challenging 2019 season that saw the team going 0-9, forfeiting the last three games of the season due to having a depleted roster. However, the Warriors will look to get back on-track as BC brings in a full roster for the 2020-21 campaign.
HISTORY WITH THE WARRIORS
In last season's meeting on Oct. 8, the Evangels broke the program's single match shots record, attempting 72 while also setting the team's second-best shots on-goal mark (39) to score the fourth-most goals in a single game with a 11-nil shutout victory at Evangel Field. Eight different MACU players scored in the contest, as Liz Lozano pushed across a pair of goals, while Kyleigh Gibson finished with a team-high two assists and a goal in her own right.
