The Lawrence women’s soccer season came to a close this past weekend, but not before they bagged two quality wins and a set of memorable moments.Saturday saw the Vikings defeat Monmouth 4-2. Things got started at a feverish pace for LU. Sara Compas came arbitrarily close to infamy by scoring at a recorded time of eleven seconds into the match. The NCAA Division III record is listed as ten seconds, but this is with a certain margin of error without instant replay. This was followed, four minutes later, by an Emily Buzicky score. Buzicky and Greta Raaen scored late in the second half for the win after Monmouth had recently equalized.
The second win of the weekend represented a beautiful parting episode for the team’s seniors. All of the five goals in the victory over Illinois College were scored by seniors. Most notable of these was Mollie O’Mara’s, the only goal of her career. This was supported by goals from seniors Compas, Buzicky, Raaen, and Molly Bryant. Despite an active campaign to push her upfield for some shots late in the game, the remaining senior, sweeper Jaime Nodarse, was unfortunately unable to convert. The final score would stand at 5-1.
There is no doubt that these seniors will be sorely missed come next year. With a mixture of this experience and a plethora of new players, the team managed to improve on last season’s record, finishing 5-4 in the Midwest Conference. This record left them one spot out of the playoffs, from which they had already been disqualified going into the recent matches. A point of particular heartbreak is that all the conference losses this year came to playoff teams, and all by one goal. Nonetheless, it would be hard to say that it wasn’t a respectable season.