Eagles Drop Close Battle with Bluejays on Senior Day

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Despite a good fight from the Eagles, Tabor women's soccer (9-6-1, 7-3-1) eked out a 2-1 win on Saturday at The Z in Avila's home finale, spoiling Senior Day for the Eagles (5-10-1, 5-5-1 KCAC) and making Avila's path to the postseason a little murkier.

It's not a season-ending loss by any means for the Eagles, but the defeat means that Avila's two games next week become even more critical, with a ton of teams jockeying for as many as four of the eight available spots in the KCAC Tournament which begins in a couple of weeks.

Avila's 2023 home finale was pretty closely contested, and the Eagles defended well and generated some chances, as they have done for much of the season, but the difference in the game was Avila's offense was able to only strike back for one goal late, and the Bluejays, who were only able to convert twice, made that 2-goal advantage stand up, despite a late Eagle surge.

Avila had the majority of the chances in the first half – four different Eagles forced saves out of Hayley Bench – but it was Tabor that had the first breakthrough when Torrance Gonzalez scored her first goal of the season off a loose ball at the top of the box with less than five minutes left in the first half.

Tabor kept the pressure on in the second half, forcing Eagle goalkeeper Olivia Seston into six saves in the final 45 and eight total in the match, and converted that pressure into a 2-0 lead through Jami Dooley in the 78^th minute. The Eagles, meanwhile, did not have many chances of their own in the second half, but on their first real shot on goal of the period Annika Holtorf delivered her first goal of the season, sliding a shot off a turnover past Bench to get Avila on the board with less than two minutes to play.

That breakthrough seemed to galvanize the Eagles in a late pursuit for an equalizer, but there simply was not enough time to complete an improbable comeback. Seston rounded out her day with her eight save of the day on a Sydney Takash chance, but the time ran out on the Eagles in a 2-1 Tabor win.

The game was the last Avila will play at The Z in the 2023 season, marking the final home game for Avila's six seniors, most of whom have been critical parts of the program for many years: Miriam Solorio, Megan Nugent, Aubrey Chaney, Amaris Sigler, Brooke Clark and Suzie Lopez, all of whom have at least two more games left as Eagles, but some work to do to ensure that there will be a third.

That sets up a crucial pair of games to close out the regular season on the road next week. Up first, Avila will travel to play one of the KCAC's top teams, Friends, on Wednesday night in Wichita. Kickoff is currently scheduled for 8:30 PM; as always, you can watch all the action on the KCAC Network.