Thursday, April 15
St. Louis, Mo.
5 p.m.
Davidson College Athletics
vs
UMass
Photo by: Tim Cowie - DavidsonPhotos.com
Wildcats Ready to Face UMass in A-10 Tournament
4/14/2021 3:51:00 PM | Women's Soccer
There are four Atlantic 10 women's soccer teams standing, and Davidson is one of them.
That distinction alone is a sign of progress for head coach Adam Denton and his program, but the Wildcats enter the league's postseason tournament Thursday with advancing on their mind. They want their first trip to the A-10 Tournament to be even more memorable.
"We're going into the semifinal against UMass with confidence and optimism," said Denton, named the league's coach of the year on Wednesday. "We know it's going to be a big challenge. They also won their group and had a really good season as well."
Davidson (6-3-3, 4-2-2 A-10) enters as the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 2 Minutewomen (6-4-1, 5-2-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday. Top-seeded host Saint Louis went 8-0 in league play and will face No. 4 Dayton in Thursday's first semifinal. The winners advance to Saturday's 1 p.m. championship.
"One thing that is special about this team is the belief that we can compete and we can win against some of the most competitive teams in our conference," said senior Gretchen Pearson. "We also have a team dynamic where everyone supports each other and plays for each other, which has been a large part of our success."
The Wildcats, with 14 points, had to perform down the stretch of the regular season to qualify. After going 2-2 in the first half of the league season, they again beat Richmond and George Mason in the rematches. But they also turned their previous league losses to VCU and George Washington into ties, earning critical separation in the standings.
"It's a big, big step forward this year for our group in a difficult year," said Denton. "In the fall of 2019, we put ourselves in position to qualify for the tournament and fell short in the last game. This year, we were in a similar situation going into the last games, and we were able to respond better and get the results we needed to qualify."
Denton said the climb to the postseason began in previous seasons, with the daily work put in by players and staff. But it also began this preseason in the minds of the league's coaches. The Wildcats were picked 11th in the preseason poll, behind three other teams from the A-10 South, with the exception of Richmond (12th). Additionally, the other teams in the tournament were picked in the top four, led by Saint Louis (first).
"The A-10 is really difficult league," said Denton. "This format didn't make it any easier, and in some respects, it made it harder. We had a very, very tough group with the teams picked high in the preseason poll within our group. Having to play each team twice is a very difficult format for everybody across all the pods because teams become very familiar with each other."
Davidson is seeking its second A-10 win over UMass, which has won the last three meetings, most recently 1-0 on Oct. 17, 2019. The Wildcats won on Oct. 13, 2016 when Maggie Boyd scored a goal with six seconds left in overtime to deliver a 1-0 win.
Wildcats get A-10 honors
Along with Denton, honored in his fourth year as head coach, Davidson's Mary Grace Bunch and Hailey Braemer earned A-10 recognition Wednesday (more).
Bunch, the junior goalkeeper, was named to the A-10 First Team, while sophomore forward Braemer earned a Second Team nod. Braemer leads the Wildcats in goals (4), assists (5) and points (13), while Bunch has an 0.67 goals against average and a .784 saves percentage.
That distinction alone is a sign of progress for head coach Adam Denton and his program, but the Wildcats enter the league's postseason tournament Thursday with advancing on their mind. They want their first trip to the A-10 Tournament to be even more memorable.
"We're going into the semifinal against UMass with confidence and optimism," said Denton, named the league's coach of the year on Wednesday. "We know it's going to be a big challenge. They also won their group and had a really good season as well."
Davidson (6-3-3, 4-2-2 A-10) enters as the No. 3 seed and will face the No. 2 Minutewomen (6-4-1, 5-2-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday. Top-seeded host Saint Louis went 8-0 in league play and will face No. 4 Dayton in Thursday's first semifinal. The winners advance to Saturday's 1 p.m. championship.
"One thing that is special about this team is the belief that we can compete and we can win against some of the most competitive teams in our conference," said senior Gretchen Pearson. "We also have a team dynamic where everyone supports each other and plays for each other, which has been a large part of our success."
The Wildcats, with 14 points, had to perform down the stretch of the regular season to qualify. After going 2-2 in the first half of the league season, they again beat Richmond and George Mason in the rematches. But they also turned their previous league losses to VCU and George Washington into ties, earning critical separation in the standings.
"It's a big, big step forward this year for our group in a difficult year," said Denton. "In the fall of 2019, we put ourselves in position to qualify for the tournament and fell short in the last game. This year, we were in a similar situation going into the last games, and we were able to respond better and get the results we needed to qualify."
Denton said the climb to the postseason began in previous seasons, with the daily work put in by players and staff. But it also began this preseason in the minds of the league's coaches. The Wildcats were picked 11th in the preseason poll, behind three other teams from the A-10 South, with the exception of Richmond (12th). Additionally, the other teams in the tournament were picked in the top four, led by Saint Louis (first).
"The A-10 is really difficult league," said Denton. "This format didn't make it any easier, and in some respects, it made it harder. We had a very, very tough group with the teams picked high in the preseason poll within our group. Having to play each team twice is a very difficult format for everybody across all the pods because teams become very familiar with each other."
Davidson is seeking its second A-10 win over UMass, which has won the last three meetings, most recently 1-0 on Oct. 17, 2019. The Wildcats won on Oct. 13, 2016 when Maggie Boyd scored a goal with six seconds left in overtime to deliver a 1-0 win.
Wildcats get A-10 honors
Along with Denton, honored in his fourth year as head coach, Davidson's Mary Grace Bunch and Hailey Braemer earned A-10 recognition Wednesday (more).
Bunch, the junior goalkeeper, was named to the A-10 First Team, while sophomore forward Braemer earned a Second Team nod. Braemer leads the Wildcats in goals (4), assists (5) and points (13), while Bunch has an 0.67 goals against average and a .784 saves percentage.
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