Tech notes: Men's soccer No. 1 seed; Brown picks up first victory
Oct. 30—Saturday was a good day for WVU Tech soccer.
The men's team earned the No. 1 seed in the upcoming River States Conference tournament and will have homefield advantage throughout. The Golden Bears (11-4-2) and Rio Grande (12-1-2) finished as the regular season co-champions with identical conference records (9-0-1).
The rivals battled to a scoreless draw in their only meeting of the season Oct. 12 in Beckley. Ultimately, the determination of the top seed went to the third tiebreaker of goal differential in conference play.
The tournament will start Saturday with quarterfinal games at the fields of the highest seeds. In the Golden Bears' case, that means a 4 p.m. start against No. 8 seed league newcomer Indiana-Purdue-Columbus (IUPUC) at the YMCA Paul Cline Memorial Sports Complex.
The semifinals will be played on Wednesday, with the championship being decided Saturday, Nov. 11.
Meanwhile, the women's team may not be playing any home games the rest of the year, but the Golden Bears have made huge strides in just making the conference tournament.
Tech (4-12-1, 3-7 RSC) is the No. 8 seed and will travel to No. 1 Indiana-Kokomo (10-3-5, 8-0-2) Saturday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Head coach Kate Carr has navigated with a rebuilt and young roster to get the team back to the postseason. The Golden Bears won one game in 2022.
The women's tournament will follow the same schedule as the men's.
Only the conference tournament champions will qualify for the NAIA Tournament.
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Saturday was also special for Ashley Brown, who earned her first career head coaching win with a 76-57 victory over Bryant and Stratton-Buffalo.
The Golden Bears (1-1) trailed 35-32 at halftime but chipped away in the third quarter and dominated the fourth 25-8 to run away.
Alva Hedrich finished with 17 points and a career-high 23 rebounds. She also had three blocked shots.
Alexis Sexton scored a team-high 18 points. Rylee Allie added 14, Nell Marx 15 and Leonor Ferreia nine points to go with 10 rebounds.
The Golden Bears will travel for the first time this season when they play in the Cumberlands Classic. Tech will take on Simmons College of Kentucky Thursday at 5 p.m., then face Milligan Friday at 1 p.m.
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Like the women's soccer team, the volleyball team is much improved and still has a shot at hosting a first round game in next week's RSC Tournament.
Tech goes into the final week of the regular season with a 15-4 overall record and 11-6 in conference play. The Golden Bears won eight of 10 matches at one point.
They won five conference games last season en route to an 8-24 record.
The Golden Bears will travel to Point Park (6-19, 3-14) on Friday and Rio Grande (16-10, 9-7) on Saturday to close out the season. Tech is 1 1/2 games ahead of Rio Grande for second place in the East Division standings.
The conference tournament will begin next Tuesday, with the higher seeds hosting quarterfinal matches. The tournament will move to the site of the highest remaining seed for the semifinals and finals Nov. 10-11.
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The men's swimming team was in a tie with Union for second in preseason Appalachian Athletic Conference voting with 10 points. Milligan was first with 15 points.
Milligan was also first on the women's side with 24 points. Tech was fourth with 12 points.
The Golden Bears will host their first home meet Saturday at the YMCA of Southern West Virginia. The event will start at 1 p.m.
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