Women's Soccer Knocked Out in KCAC Tournament Quarterfinals

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Avila women's soccer qualified for the postseason in 2022 after missing out last year, but the Eagles' (5-10-5, 5-5-2 KCAC) season came to an end on Friday morning in Bartlesville, with top-seeded Oklahoma Wesleyan (19-0-1, 12-0 KCAC) prevailing 10-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2022 KCAC Women's Soccer Championship.

Serious rain and other weather concerns have muddied up the first round of both 2022 KCAC soccer tournaments, and this match was the most adversely affected: Avila and OKWU agreed to move the match up to a 10 AM local start time Friday morning to try to avoid the rain scheduled for later in the day in Oklahoma. It wasn't Avila's first time kicking off before noon in the state of Oklahoma this season – Avila defeated Southwestern Christian 3-1 in early action earlier this fall – but SCU is a far cry from the level of OKWU, and those Eagles showcased that yet again on Friday morning.

Oklahoma Wesleyan is the undisputed heavyweight champion of women's soccer in this conference, and though Avila has played OKWU quite closely over the last few seasons, OKWU is as good as ever this year. Ranked No. 6 in the nation in the NAIA's coaches' poll, Oklahoma Wesleyan cruised to yet another undefeated KCAC campaign and is likely to win another tournament championship this season as well.

It was a bitter reward for Avila to have to face OKWU in the first round after the Avila Eagles put together a good late season run to qualify for the postseason as the #8 seed, but, even still, emerging as one of the top eight teams in a conference that has been really competitive in recent years – outside of Oklahoma Wesleyan at the top – is no small feat. Avila was the #8 seed in this year's tournament, and the point difference between the #5 team (Ottawa) and the #9 team (Bethel) was just 3, with 1.5 games in the standings separating those five squads in that tier.

All of that is to say, Oklahoma Wesleyan is going to be a tough out for anyone before the NAIA Tournament, and they looked the part of conference champions on Friday. Presumptive KCAC Player of the Year Laura Maria scored four goals and added three assists, Naroa Domenech chipped in two of each, and the OKWU defense allowed Avila to get only two shots on goal – both courtesy of Kirryn Killingsworth – in a 10-0 win.

Kenan Ebel and the Eagle defense did all they could to weather the storm – Ebel was credited with 12 saves, one off her career high, including more than a couple strong stops, and including nine in the second half alone – but OKWU was too much to overcome. Reigning KCAC Defensive Player of the Week Adelynn Link played the full 90 minutes in her final college game; Killingsworth, Hannah Coates and Lauren Paccapaniccia also closed out their collegiate careers with their third postseason appearance in their four years.

It has been an impressive run overall for Avila head coach Katie LaForge, who famously inherited a team that went winless and swiftly brought them into the postseason once Avila joined the KCAC. The Eagles have now been a postseason fixture with LaForge at the helm and even though this year's senior class was quite impactful, compared to last year there are fewer players departing the ranks this summer, which should set the Eagles up nicely for another solid season in 2023.