Women’s Soccer Clinches Spot in Heart Tournament with 3-0 Win at Mount Mercy

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - In a must-win match, the Baker women's soccer team earned a spot in the Heart Conference Tournament after the Wildcats defeated Mount Mercy, 3-0 in the regular-season finale here Saturday afternoon in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

With three wins in their final five matches, the Wildcats finish conference play with a 4-6-1 record - beating out Culver-Stockton (3-4-4) on the tiebreaker - and will be the No. 8 seed in the Heart Tournament.

"Proud is an understatement for these ladies," said Wildcats head coach Sara Matthews. "We knew going into the game that our fate was in our control, it was win or be done. We fought through some major adversity this season and some teams may have given up when a final blow came early in the third game of the year, but they bought in, trusted what we needed to do and ultimately earned a spot in the playoffs."

Baker scored a pair of goals in the first half and added a third in the second half, while pitching its fifth shutout of the season to claim the road win.

Sadie Dipman-Hayward, Cate Nearmyer and Emma Schieber recorded the goals for BU with Nearmyer setting up Schieber's goal to finish with a three-point outing for the senior midfielder.

The Wildcats boasted a 15-5 advantage in shots with Aubree Koren tallying a game-high five shots in the match, while Dipman-Hayward and Bella Wiles each had three shots apiece. BU keeper Jorja Martin earned her third solo clean sheet of the season, stopping the lone MMU shot sent her way.

With chilly temperatures in Cedar Rapids, it didn't take long for the BU offense to heat up with Nearmyer threading the needle to find an open Schieber in the middle of the box and Schieber banging in her second goal of the year to put the Wildcats on top, 1-0 within the game's first 15 minutes.

Then, in the 32nd minute, Nearmyer scratched across a goal of her own after a brilliant first touch on a deflected cross set herself up with a tight window near the top of the box and she went top-shelf on a left-footed rocket to give the Wildcats a two-goal cushion.

With Baker carrying a 2-0 lead into halftime, the Mustangs opened up the second half with a few chances, earning back-to-back corner kicks and putting up two shots within the first 11 minutes after the restart.

Dipman-Hayward put the final nail in the coffin in the 72nd minute after finding herself on the receiving end of an arching cross by Annika Munch that ricocheted off Dipman-Hayward and fell into the back of the net to pad Baker's 3-0 victory.

With her first-half tally, Nearmyer has now scored three goals over the past three games after recording a brace against Graceland on Oct. 21. She has four goals in 2023, tying her with Koren for the team lead in scoring this season.

The final goal by the Wildcats featured a couple of firsts for them with Dipman-Hayward scoring her first goal of the season and Munch earning her first assist of the fall.

"It took us time this season to work through a new formation defensively, then offensively through the lines," added Matthews. "The girls definitely had questions along the way, but it has been a complete team effort all season long with all of us contributing to our success and I'm just so proud of them. Now, we will look to lock in and take one playoff game at a time."

As the eighth seed, the Wildcats will face top-seed Central Methodist in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Heart Women's Soccer Conference Tournament, presented by WinWon Technologies on Saturday, Nov. 4 in Fayette, Mo.

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