MNU Season Ends with 2nd Round Loss

Box Score The MNU Men's Soccer team season ended today with a 2-1 loss to 8-seed Belhaven University in the second round of the NAIA National Championship Tournament. Belhaven is the defending national champion and that experience showed in the opening minutes. Two goals in the opening 20 minutes of the game proved to be too much for the Pioneers. They pulled a goal back in the 39th minute but could not find the equalizer. Belhaven moves on to face #16 seed Martin Methodist in the quarterfinals.
 
For the game BU outshot MNU 9-5; with SOG being 6-4. Chris Eriksson had 4 saves for MNU. Taylor Esparza scored the lone goal for MNU. The Pioneers end their season with an overall record of 14-5-3. This was their 3rd consecutive trip to the National Tournament and their first Conference Championship since 2008. MNU says goodbye to 5 seniors: Lippi Souza, Oran Tene, Chris Eriksson, Rodrigo Rivas, and Taylor Esparza.
 
Coach Wardlaw stated, "It is always disappointing when the season ends due to a loss. Belhaven is a very good team and we were not good enough on the day. I am very proud of the guys for their perseverance this year. We will look back and realize it was another good one at MNU. For now, it hurts, and it is hard to think about anything else. A big thank you to the seniors. They have played a big part in our success and we will miss what they each brought to the team."