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Carley Wagasky fights for a loose ball vs. Calvin
Lynne Powe
Pictured, Carley Wagasky
0
Hope Hope (12-4-2, 6-1-1)
4
Winner Calvin Calvin (14-2-2, 8-0-0)
Hope Hope
(12-4-2, 6-1-1)
0
Final
4
Calvin Calvin
(14-2-2, 8-0-0)
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Hope Hope 0 0 0
Calvin Calvin 1 3 4

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | | Lukas Cimbal

Women's Soccer Falls at Calvin in MIAA Tournament Final

The Hope College women's soccer team played Calvin to a scoreless draw over the first 33 minutes of Saturday night's MIAA championship game. But the Knights got a fortunate bounce and deflection to get on the board late in the first half and the floodgates were opened from that point on.

No. 16-ranked Calvin scored four times in a 31-minute span in a 4-0 win to capture the MIAA tournament title.

The Knights (14-2-2) have now won the past three MIAA tournaments and will await Monday's 2 p.m. announcement on NCAA.com to see who their first-round NCAA tournament opponent will be. 

Hope (12-4-2) came into the game as the No. 6-ranked team in Region 8 and will remain squarely on the postseason bubble.

"Calvin is one of the best teams in the country when it comes to finishing [at the net]," Hope coach Holly Van Noord said. "They have a lot of grad students and seniors, so they're a very experienced team. They were all over the field tonight and we just could never get things going the way that we wanted to."

Hope senior forward Carley Wagasky (Grand Haven, Michigan / Grand Haven HS) echoed Van Noord's sentiments.

"I think we came into the game tonight with a mindset of giving it our all," Wagasky said. "We had a game plan of pressing and everyone had their specific role, but it just didn't work out tonight."

It was an evenly played first half, as both teams had four shots on goal. 

But the only one that got into the net occurred in the 34th minute when a bouncing ball near the top of the 18-yard box found its way to the foot of Calvin's Kiah Nichols. Nichols' shot a few yards inside the box was stopped by Hope senior goalkeeper Kendall Robertson (Jackson, Michigan / Western), but the ball deflected off Robertson right to Calvin freshman forward Shay Norden, who had a wide-open net.

The score remained the same into the second half, causing the Flying Dutch to come out on the attack in the first few minutes of the half. Hope had a couple of chances during that time frame, with junior forward Avery Coykendall (Plymouth, Michigan / Canton) setting up junior midfielder Liz Bellinger (Williamston / Williamston) for a header back toward the goal and a left-footed blast from just outside the box that sailed a couple feet over the crossbar.

Calvin started to pull away a few minutes later when forward Sophie Mueller made a slick move into the left side of the box and blasted a shot into the upper-right corner of the net to extend the lead to 2-0 in the 53rd minute.

Hope junior forward Ainsley Harris (Zeeland, Michigan / Holland Christian) nearly put the Flying Dutch on the board from 25 yards out in the 57th minute, but her shot that was set up from a Hope corner kick a few seconds earlier was a little off-target. 

Harris also had one of Hope's best chances of the night in the 64th minute from the right sideline, but Calvin goalie Kalex Dodge made a leaping save to keep the Flying Dutch off the board.

Mueller won a battle with a Hope defender at the end line and placed a perfect shot into the bottom left corner of the net in the 62nd minute for her 10th goal of the season and Liz Williams rocketed a shot in from almost 30 yards out in the 65th minute to provide the final goal of the night.

Wagasky served up a beautiful ball into the box in the 85th minute to Bellinger, but Bellinger had no angle after faking Dodge out and was unable to get the ball into the vacated net.

"We changed a couple of things around tonight because we figured that we had nothing to lose," Van Noord said. "Tonight was difficult, but we're not going to let one game define our season. It took some time to get to the level that we needed to be at [at the start of the season], but the girls really started to lock in and get focused. I couldn't be any more proud of them."

Calvin outshot Hope 9-5 in the game, but Hope had seven corner kicks (while holding Calvin without a single corner). Robertson and Dodge both had five saves for their respective teams. Junior defender Grace Fowler (Cumming, Georgia / Pinecrest Academy) and Harris led the Flying Dutch with two shots apiece.

Wagasky was reflective when talking about what could potentially be her last game in a Hope uniform.

"We'll use the rest of this weekend to not think about [the postseason] too much and on Monday we'll find out and go from there," Wagasky said. "We've had our ups and downs this season, but everyone has played their role well. This is my second year here at Hope [after transferring from the University of Findlay] and I've loved it. The girls are amazing and the support system that everyone provides to our program is unmatched. It's a special place."
 
Gallery: (11-9-2024) Women's Soccer vs. Calvin - MIAA
 
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