Women’s Soccer Plays to Scoreless Draw against Vikings on Senior Night

BALDWIN CITY - Competing for the final time at home this regular season, Baker women's soccer played to a scoreless tie with visiting Grand View on Saturday as the Wildcats celebrated Senior Night at Hartley Field.

Prior to the match, Baker honored nine seniors for their contribution to the Wildcats women's soccer program. Those seniors included Macie Albright, Lydia Brinker, Grace Higgins, Stella Jameson, Kim McAlpine, Emma Mlivic, Emma Schieber, Adela Smajlaj and Kaycee Tanner.

"We celebrated an amazing group of seniors tonight," expressed Baker head coach Sara Matthews. "To say I'm proud is an understatement. These seniors have set the bar high and work extremely hard in the program and in the classroom. They are also such good people and they make our jobs as coaches so enjoyable. Who they are means so much, not only to us, but to their teammates as well."

The Wildcats held a slight advantage in shots at 5-4, but earned a total of 12 corner kicks in the game, matching their season-high outing at Graceland last week where they also took 12 corners.

Emeil Bennett had two shots for Baker, a header in the first half and a shot from outside the box that landed on target in the second half. Sidney Claeys had the other shot on goal for BU.

Making the 15th start of her freshman campaign, Avery Young came through with her second solo shutout of the season, recording one save against the Vikings on their lone shot towards goal of the match.

Each side had a couple of quick scoring chances in the first five minutes with Young's save preventing a quick goal from GVU, while Baker's first corner kick resulted in a shot for Bennett.

Baker had a string of three straight corner kicks midway through the first half before its sixth corner kick of the period provided some excitement with Caitlin Youles having a shot blocked and Claeys trying one from the edge of the box that ended up in the arms of the Vikings goalie.

In the second half, both teams looked to break the scoreless deadlock with BU earning another slew of corner kicks, but the only shot of the second 45 minutes came from Baker in the first few minutes of the restart.

It was the second time in their last three home matches the Wildcats have come away with a draw at Hartley Field after a 1-1 tie against Mount Mercy back on Oct. 12.

Young and the BU defense posted their first shutout since a 3-0 blanking at William Penn in mid-September. The Wildcats have a total of three shutouts on the season with a 1-0 victory at Ottawa in the non-conference joining their two shutouts in league play.

"We are not done yet," added Matthews. "We know if we do our job next Saturday, then we're in the playoffs. To make the playoffs in the Heart is such an incredible feat with all 12 teams having the ability to compete at a high level. Our seniors will get us focused on the task and we will be ready."

With the regular-season finale next weekend, the Wildcats currently sit in 10th place in the Heart standings with an opportunity to secure a spot in the eight-team conference tournament. BU has earned eight points during the conference season with just a two-point gap separating them and Park (10 pts) and Graceland (10 pts), who hold the last two spots for the tournament, with Mount Mercy (9 pts) mixed in there as well.

In an almost identical position as last year, the Wildcats will look to repeat their result from the 2023 regular-season finale where the team clinched a spot in the Heart Tournament with a 3-0 win at Mount Mercy in a win-or-go-home situation.

Baker will take on Park in the final game of the 2024 regular season on Saturday, Nov. 2 starting at 12 p.m. in Parkville, Mo.

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