Racers Claim Three Peat in WHAC Tournament

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – The University of Northwestern Ohio women's soccer team ended the regular season as co-champion of the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference with the Davenport University Panthers, and the two teams were set to do battle on Saturday afternoon at DU as the Racers looked for their third straight WHAC Tournament title.

The NAIA No. 6 Racers (18-2-1) avenged their lone conference loss of the year with an impressive 2-0 victory over the No. 20 Panthers (18-2-1) in Grand Rapids. Davenport hosted the championship contest as the top seed after a 2-1 victory over the second-seeded Racers proved to be the tiebreaker.

Racer head coach Stuart Gore summed up the victory by saying, "It's not about winning the battle, it's about winning the war. Davenport won the battle in the regular season, but the war was won by us today."

The monumental victory was kick-started by Robyn Moodaly who scored on an unassisted strike form 10 yards on a shot which snuck under the crossbar in the third minute.

"We had a great start. Roby did what she's been doing all season opening up the defense and took it herself with a great finish," Gore stated.

Both teams then settled into a groove defensively as neither team managed to get another goal until UNOH converted a corner kick in the 86th minute. Marie Adram crossed the ball into the box as Camilla Andersen beat the defense and keeper with a header from a close distance to ice the game.

"We had to deal with more pressure from them in the second half, but our backline held strong. Then we got a handle back on the game and put our foot on the gas," Gore added. "It was a difficult and frustrating game for Camilla, but Marie put a great ball in and Camilla lost her marker to seal the win for us."

The goal was Andersen's 31st on the year as she has scored in 20 consecutive matches.

The Racers have competed in the WHAC Tournament Championship in all four years of the program's existence, and Gore wanted to honor his inaugural team with the victory.

"I'd like to dedicate this game and win to our team of 2013," he said. "We came here to Davenport in our first ever season as a program four years ago for the conference final, and we sadly lost on penalty kicks. So winning here, in the way we did, feels like a little redemption."