By necessity, the path through the earliest stage of the NAIA women's soccer national tournament would be more difficult this season.
Unlike years past, when a team needed only one win, regardless of seed, to move on to final site competition in Alabama, a recent expansion of the tournament necessitated sending three teams to each Opening Round location.
The format pitted each site's two lowest seeds against each other, with the winner advancing to face a highly-seeded, and well-rested, host the following day.
The Master's University women's soccer team unlocked the first part of the new set-up Friday with an impressive win over Truett McConnell University from Georgia. The Mustangs' reward: a date with the tournament's No. 2 overall seed, Keiser University.
Keiser beat the Mustangs, 8-1, on Saturday in West Palm Beach, Florida, advancing to Alabama along with 15 other teams and improving to 20-1 on the year. TMU's season ended at 13-6-3.
It was the fifth time in the last seven years that Master's has won at least 13 games, and the team reached nationals four times during that span.
Saturday's loss brought to an end the Mustang careers of 11 seniors.
"I'll remember going out each and every day knowing the girls wanted to glorify God in every way," said senior Kayla Peterson, a four-time All-Golden State Athletic Conference selection. "These girls have become family over the last four years."
Head coach Curtis Lewis said he was proud of the way TMU finished Saturday's game, holding the Seahawks to two goals after halftime while scoring one of its own.
Kayla Sims scored in the 86th minute, capping her lone year on the pitch with six goals, tied for second most on the team. She said transitioning to soccer from volleyball, where she reached second place on TMU's all-time assists record over a four-year career, was worth it.
"Overall I'm super happy that I played and met some amazing girls with incredible hearts for the Lord," she said.
Hannah Bahr provided the assist on Sims' final goal, giving Bahr a team-high seven assists on the year. Bahr echoed Peterson and Sims: It was the relationships that mattered.
"I got to spend four years with some of my best friends doing what we love while growing as women of God," she said. "In my four years here, I've grown so much physically and spiritually, and I will never forget all the memories that I made with this team. I'm thankful to coach (Lewis) for not only developing us as players but caring for our walk with God each step of the way."
