The Beloit College women's soccer team heads back to the Midwest Conference Tournament this week making its fifth appearance in the league tournament in program history and first since 1999. League champion Knox College will host the tournament Friday and Saturday in Galesburg, Illinois.
 
MWC Championship Page
 
Beloit enters the four-team tournament as the number three seed after a fantastic regular season finale. The Bucs will take on Lake Forest College, the number two seed, in the tournament opener. *Links to live coverage will be added when made available by the host institution.
 
Semifinal One: #3 Beloit College (7-4-5, 4-1-3) vs. #2 Lake Forest College (9-6-1, 6-1-1)
Date: Friday, November 5
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Galesburg High School (1135 W. Fremont Street, Galesburg, IL 61401)
 
Semifinal Two: #4 Lawrence University (11-6-1, 5-3) vs. #1 Knox College (10-6-1, 8-0)
Date: Friday, November 5
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Knox College (2 East South Street, Galesburg, IL 61401)
 
Tournament Championship: Winner of Semifinal One vs. Winner of Semifinal Two
Date: Saturday, November 6
Time: 11 a.m.
Location: Knox College (2 East South Street, Galesburg, IL 61401)
 
The Road to the Tournament
After losing an entire year to the pandemic, the Bucs' relied on the leadership of returners mixed with a talented group of young players throughout the season. "I've been so proud of how this team has come together and continued to improve their game throughout the season," said Head Coach Connor McKee about the 2021 campaign so far. "The returners have done a great job of leading this young but talented group, while the freshmen and sophomores have done really well with "growing up quickly" in our program."

The season was battle from the onset. Despite a greater number of ties, Beloit fought their way through the year, saddled with just a single loss to a league foe, to remain in contention for the conference's postseason tournament. 

The top two seeds were secured by the Prairie Fire and Foresters over a week prior to the end of the regular season. Meanwhile, the battle for the final two spots in the tournament came down to four teams and the final two games of the season.
 
The Buccaneers opened the final week of play at Lawrence University Tuesday. The Vikings were third in the MWC standings heading into the game followed by Monmouth College then Beloit and Grinnell. The Bucs, Fighting Scots and Vikings were all in action Tuesday with the results shaking up the league standings. Monmouth captured a win over Cornell to jump into third.
 
Meanwhile, in Appleton, the Bucs were busy grabbing hold of their own postseason destiny. In the 15^th minute, Beloit earned a corner on the far side of the field. Lorraine Pedroza sent a low ball in, near the top of the box that Bri Paez got a boot on. That connection had a bounding ball leap over the outstretched arm of the Viking keeper and fall under the crossbar to the back of the net for an early advantage. Mikaila Davis gave Beloit a cushion with another goal in the second half to secure the win giving the Bucs three conference points.
 
Now tied with Lawrence in the league standings, the Bucs controlled their fate setting up a "win and in" scenario for the team's regular season finale. The final two spots would be determined by the results from two matches Saturday, Beloit vs. Cornell in Beloit and Monmouth at Lawrence. 
 
In front of the home crowd Saturday at the Strong Soccer Complex in Beloit, the Bucs and Rams were scoreless after the first 45. Abigail Membrino broke the stalemate early in the second half capitalizing on a pair of assists from teammates Natalie Ortiz and Davis to put Beloit ahead 1-0. The defense held the rest of the way to secure the team's ticket to the conference tournament.
 
The seeding came down to the Monmouth-Lawrence match. As the Vikings pulled out the 1-0 double overtime win over the Fighting Scots, Beloit took the third seed and Lawrence secured the final spot in the tournament.
 
The Matchup
Friday's semifinal between the Bucs and the Foresters will pit the league's most stifling defense against the conference's top scoring offense. Beloit leads the Midwest Conference and ranks among the top 20-percent of the more than 400 Division III women's soccer programs in goals against average allowing just 12 goals all season.
 
Lake Forest leads the league offensively averaging 1.750 goals per game and 4.94 points per outing.
 
The squads hold the top two places in the MWC statistical rankings in assists, points per game, goals against average, saves per game, shutouts and corners.
 
Individually, Beloit's Membrino (5) and Makenna Downing (5), along with LFC's Julia Larson (8) rank among the top ten in the league in goals this season. Three Foresters join Downing on the top ten list for total points in 2021.
 
In goal, Audrey Ketterer boasts the top goalie stats in the conference allowing just six goals in over 770 minutes of play for a league-leading goals against average of .699. The junior also holds the top save percentage in the MWC at .854.
 
What's on the Line
The MWC Tournament champion will receive the league's automatic bid into the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III tournament.
 
The Buccaneers have already written their name in program history making the tournament for just the fifth time (1999, '93, '92, 91) since the league began hosting a tournament in 1991. Beloit advanced to the MWC Tournament title game twice (1992, '91) but have never hoisted the tournament trophy. They'll look to change that this weekend beginning with Friday's match against the Foresters.

"While this has been a historic season in a lot of ways, we all understand how special this opportunity is," added McKee. "We're entering the conference tournament happy with what we've accomplished so far but hungry for making more history for this program."