San Diego, CA – The St. Edward’s University women’s soccer team’s season came to an end in a penalty shootout loss to West Texas A&M University on Friday night.The Hilltoppers played to a scoreless draw with the Lady Buffalos through the regulation and two overtime periods. In the end, West Texas A&M converted all of its penalty kick chances, while St. Edward’s only converted one.This is the furthest a women’s soccer team has advanced in the NCAA tournament in the history of the program. The women fell just shy of reaching the Elite Eight and winning their first ever South Central Regional Title.”I’m really proud of these girls,” said head coach Nick Cowell in a post game interview from Triton Field on the University of California at San Diego campus. “They have nothing to hang their heads about. They had a really solid season.”The ladies advanced to the regional championship game by defeating Central Oklahoma University in the first round of the NCAA tournament 5-4 in a shootout.”In a penalty kick situation you live by the sword one week and die by it the next,” said Cowell.The women then advanced to play Heartland Conference foe the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. The Hilltoppers split the season series with Incarnate Word, and both teams won at home. In this meeting, the St. Edward’s defense proved too much for the Cardinals. The Hilltoppers held on to 1-0 lead and advanced to the regional final.Coming into their meeting with West Texas A&M, the Hilltoppers dominated their opponents, only allowing six goals the entire season. The team also dominated other statistical categories, and the meeting with the Lady Buffs was no different. St. Edward’s outshot their opponents 14-4. They had six shots on goal to West Texas’ one.Senior Stacey Copeland had the two best opportunities to score in the match. One in the first half off a corner kick she put a header just over the cross bar. Copeland also found a chance in the second half that was stopped by the post.St. Edward’s returns a majority of its team next year with only four seniors leaving. These four seniors, Copeland, Alex Podowski, Korre Fairman and Kim Abbott were integral parts of this team.West Texas A&M will play the winner of the match between the host university and California State Dominguez Hills for the right to go the NCAA Final Four in Tampa, Florida.

 ^