Lady Braves downed in first round

The 2009 women's soccer season ended in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament.

The Lady Braves rode a 12-game winning streak into their matchup with the 15th seeded Trolls of Trinity Christian College. In a 1-0 loss, head coach Craig Shaw felt his team fought hard.

"I think they played well in the first half, but were outmuscled in the second (half)," Shaw said. "To play the 15th ranked team in the nation and come up short 1-0, we were disappointed of course, but the girls have plenty of reason to be proud of themselves."

Sophomore defender Christie Johnson noticed the team struggled in capitalizing on opportunities, but felt the season was an overall success.

"We had a lot of young players play well," Johnson said. "We played a lot of hard games early in the season to help us so we did well in conference."

The Lady Braves posted a 16-5 record, and were 9-0 in the conference - becoming a team Shaw called "one of the best" in OU history. Freshman midfielder Sheridan Horner attributed a lot of team success to the closeness of the group.

"It's really hard to find a team where everyone gets along well and there's not any conflict," Horner said. "We had a common goal to win the conference and make it to nationals, and we accomplished it."

"I think a big part of making it as far as we did was team chemistry."

With a team not losing any players from the 2009 squad, the women will have high expectations for next season.

"We want to win conference and conference tournament again," Johnson said. "We have had the chance to get used to how everybody plays over this season, and our goal is to go further in nationals."

Shaw sees room for the team to grow also, as they move into the future.

"We will get in the weight room a lot during the off season to be able to compete with the more physical teams," he said.