It's been a special year for the John Brown University women's soccer team, and it got even better Monday.
The Golden Eagles, who went undefeated to win the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season championship, advanced to the program's fourth straight conference tournament championship game with a 2-0 semifinals win over St. Gregory's (Okla.) at Alumni Field.
"I think it's been so fun," JBU coach Kathleen Paulsen said. "I mean that was a great battle. (St. Gregory's) put up a good performance. I can't say enough about these girls. It's just an incredible group of girls on and off the field."
The winner of the Sooner Athletic Conference Tournament receives an automatic berth in the NAIA National Tournament. The Golden Eagles will host Science
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and Arts (Okla.) at 5 p.m. Friday in the championship game at Alumni Field.
JBU (17-1-1, 9-0 SAC) is ranked No. 16 in the nation and could make a strong case to get an at-large berth to the national tournament, regardless of Friday's outcome. The Golden Eagles don't want to take any chances, however.
"We're looking at it as a one-way street, and Friday's game is that," Paulsen said.
Science and Arts defeated JBU in penalty kicks in the SAC Championship game last season. JBU defeated Oklahoma City in PKs in the 2013 title game and lost to Oklahoma Baptist in 2014.
JBU defeated Science and Arts 2-1 in double overtime Oct. 15 of this season.
On Monday, the Golden Eagles got on the scoreboard in the sixth minute when an Anna Brown cross found Jastin Redman in front of the goal. Redman turned and fired for her 16th goal of the season.
Redman gave the Golden Eagles a bit of breathing room in the 85th minute with her second goal of the match and 17th of the season. She drove across the back line and scored to the opposite post.
"I'm really proud of this team," said Redman, a sophomore. "We've worked hard to get where we are, and hard work pays off."
St. Gregory's actually recorded the first shot of the game in the first minute on a defensive breakdown by JBU, but Golden Eagles senior keeper Kristen Morency made the save -- her only one of the match.
The shot ended up being the Cavaliers' only shot of the match, while JBU produced 19 shots, including eight on goal.
Redman had six of those shots, while Sara Lachance had five.
The result was a sharp contrast to the last time the two teams played on Oct. 8. JBU won that game 9-0 behind four goals from Kristen Howell and two from Redman.
"They were missing a lot of players last game, and they had them out there (Monday), and they're quality players for them," Paulsen said.
JBU also had some quality players as highlighted by the announcement of the Sooner Athletic Conference's postseason awards Monday.
Aspen Robinson was named Player of the Year, while Paulsen was Coach of the Year. Redman was Offensive Player of the Year, while Weber was co-Defensive Player of the Year. Howell was Freshman of the Year and Morency was Goalkeeper of the Year.
Robinson, Redman, Lachance, Sara Frey, Morency and Weber were all named to the first-team, while Howell and Annika Bos of Siloam Springs were named to the second team.
Sports on 11/09/2016