Westminster Ends EC Women’s Soccer Season, 5-0

EUREKA – The Eureka women's soccer team's season came to an end with a 5-0 loss to Westminster in the pouring rain on Friday evening at McKinzie Field.

As they have down the stretch of the season, the Red Devils played a defensive-minded brand of soccer, focusing on containing rather than attacking.

The team had only one lapse in the first half. In the 25th minute, Madi Lenk's through ball slipped past the EC defense. Center backs Kayla Enochs (Greenfield, Ind./Central Greenfield) and Emma Harris (Streator, Ill./Streator) quickly adjusted and got back, but Rachel Nolte put it away before they could close in.

Early in the second half, Westminster made a couple of short, angled passes before finding Lauren Halamicek, who cut to her right and fired to the right side to make it 2-0.

Halamicek scored again with a chip to the right upper 90 from 28 yards out in the 66th minute and Nolte scored again from the right side less than a minute later.

The final goal of the night was courtesy of Westminster senior Rebecca Bond, who finished one for the road with 30 seconds left in the match.

Senior goalkeeper Abby Swope (Canton, Ill./Canton) racked up 12 saves on the night to complete her collegiate career with 770 saves in 55 matches. She is the SLIAC's all-time saves leader and is currently 15th all-time NCAA Division III history.

The loss was the Red Devils' first time allowing five or more goals since Oct. 16 and was only the third time this season. The Red Devils finished the season with a 4-14 record on the year and a 2-12 mark in SLIAC play.

This fall, the maroon and gold began to close the considerable gap that has existed between themselves and the top teams in the conference. During St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play, the team repeatedly recorded program-best results, or the best results the program has had against a specific opponent in a decade or more.

Over the past three seasons, the team went from conceding 6.33 goals per match in 2019 to 4.77 goals per game in spring 2021 to just 2.88 goals per match this fall.

The team is clearly trending in the right direction, but it will have six terrific seniors to replace in Enochs, Harris, Swope, Michaela Mall (Princeton, Ill./Princeton), Lindsey Johnston (Evansville, Ind./Harrison) and Olivia Falls (Bloomington, Ill./Bloomington). Falls was absent due to a medical procedure, but the other five put it all on the field one more time for the Red Devils.