(Kansas City, Mo.) – Friday afternoon, the UMKC women’s soccer team fell 2-1 to the North Dakota State Bison in the semifinal round of the Summit League Tournament.

Despite the loss, UMKC (8-8-4, 6-3-1 SL) still had a season full of milestones in head coach Chris Cissell’s first season.  In 2011, the ‘Roos completed their regular season schedule above .500, won a total of six games in a row, and earned a bid to the Summit League Tournament. 

As for NDSU (15-3-2, 8-1-1 SL), it will face the winner of South Dakota State (12-5-2, 8-0-1 SL) and Oakland (8-10-1, 6-2-1 SL) on Sunday at 11 a.m. for the league tournament title.

In the first half, during the 27^th minute, NDSU struck first when midfielder Michelle Gaffney knocked in a header off a free kick by forward Anisha Kinnarath.    

At the half, UMKC was unable to get on the board as the score remained 1-0 in favor of NDSU. 

During the 54^th minute, UMKC caught a break when Gaffney was issued a yellow card for a high kick to the face of sophomore midfielder Ashley Gann.  Off the free kick taken by freshman defender Kaely Tott, Gann knocked in a header for her third goal of the season to tie the game.  For Tott, it was her third assist of the year.   

Later in the half, NDSU had two opportunities to reclaim the lead when midfielder’s Stephanie Jacobson and Jaclyn Scanlan had back-to-back shots.  As what she’s done all year, junior keeper Jami Finnell came up big as she saved both attempts.

With less than two minutes to play, same score, it looked as if the match was heading into overtime.  Earlier in the season at DSSRF, the two team’s regular match resulted in a 1-1 tie.

However, Danielle Boldenow scored to put the Bison up 2-1 in what was the final score of the game.  Freshman Taylor Stainbrook was credited with the assist. 

For UMKC, the future does look bright as it will only be losing seniors defender Amanda Casalinuovo and midfielder Laura Creason to graduation. 

In only one season, Cissell and his staff has this program going in the right direction.