Jackets’ Season Ends at HLC Tourney (11/3/05)
Box Score
BILLINGS, MT – The Montana State-Billings
women’s soccer season came to an end Thursday afternoon with a 1-0
loss to St. Mary’s (TX) in the semifinal round of the Heartland
Conference Tournament. The Yellowjackets finished the season at
11-5-2. St. Mary’s improved to 12-5-1 and will advance to face
Incarnate Word (TX) on Saturday in the Heartland Conference
championship game. The winner of that game will host next year’s
Heartland Conference Championship Tournament.
Thursday’s game between the Rattlers and
Yellowjackets was a defensive struggle from the start. The teams
combined for just 11 total shots and five shots on goal.
Yellowjacket goalkeeper Megan
Plank (Jr., Phoenix, AZ) and St. Mary’s goalkeeper Lily Cano
each made two saves. The Rattlers’ Kelly Gonzalez scored the game
winner at 57:54. She was assisted by Deann Lopez.
The Rattlers out-shot the Yellowjackets 6-5. Ally
Stroup (Jr., Ojai, CA) had both of the Yellowjackets’ shots on
goal. MSU Billings will graduate just one player from this year’s
team. Senior defender Lacey Albrent (Ojai, CA) played her final game as a
Yellowjacket Thursday.
“We looked good at the beginning of the
game,” said Yellowjacket head coach Don Trentham. “We played well
the first 10 or 15 minutes. Then it became one of those games
that the team that capitalized on its opportunities would win. We
didn’t capitalize on our opportunities and they did. I thought we
looked a little tight. It was the first college playoff game for
any of our players. We gained some experience and will look
forward to next year. I feel bad for Lacey. We’ll definitely
miss her next year. She had a good season.”
With 11 wins this season, MSU Billings
reached double digit victories in back-to-back seasons for the
first time in school history. The Yellowjackets were 12-4-3 last
year, the first winning season in the program’s history. The 23
wins in the past two years exceed the total number of victories in
the previous four seasons combined. |
