SUPERIOR, Wis. - Bethany women's soccer secured at least a home game in the UMAC postseason tournament as well as a chance at the No. 1 seed and regular season title with a 2-1 win at UW-Superior on Friday. The Vikings wrap up the regular season 9-7-2 overall and 9-2-1 in the UMAC.
With 28 points in the conference standings, Bethany cannot finish worse than the No. 2 seed and can claim the conference title outright with a Northwestern tie or loss to UM-Morris on Saturday. The Vikings' home semifinal game will be played at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Scheels Field.
Riley Ping slipped through the Yellowjacket defense in the ninth minute, giving the Vikings the early lead with her sixth goal of the season. The score remained 1-0 in favor of the visitors after 45 minutes with Superior leading 9-6 in shots.
Elena Luján Rubio netted her career-high 20th goal of the season in the 48th minute, which proved to be her third game-winner of the season. Luján Rubio is now tied with Madison Perry (2017-21) with 57 career goals, which is the program record, and is one goal shy of tying the single season goal record, also held by Perry who scored 21 in 2019.
UW-Superior maintained most of the pressure throughout the game, out-shooting the Vikings 20-9 overall and 10-7 on goal, and the pressure paid off with a goal with 1:35 left in the game, but it was too little, too late. Arayah Baker made a number of impressive saves and finished with nine stops.
UMAC playoff seeding will be finalized following Saturday's outcomes.
