Coming into their final games of the season, the Lady Bulldogs played an away game against the University of Montevallo in Huntsville, AL for the semi-finals of the GSC of the NCAA on Friday, Nov. 15 at 6p.m. Union started with a record of 10-4-2 and lost 0-5, making their record 10-5-2.
“It’s really been a team effort,” Josh Alford, third season head coach, said. “We’ve had some downs and then we’ve had some ups, and those ups have kind of propelled us to keep going.”
After scoring two shots on the goal, and taking four shots, Lucia Revuelto, a sophomore chemistry major and forward, was named as the second team All-GSC. She has been excited with the team’s momentum this season.
“We’re not just going to throw it all away, and we’re just going to keep going and do our best and keep getting results,” Revuelto said. “We were putting all our effort into the game, as a team, instead of individually.”
With the effort of the team putting in the work, the team culture has grown immensely.
“It’s a group that likes to be around each other, there are a lot of smiles and they are willing to pick each other up,” Alford said. “The girls always hang out together, they play for each other, they work hard, they encourage, they’re willing to have tough conversations with each other.”
Even as a very strong team together on and off the field, the lady bulldogs were defeated in the GSC semifinals, and left questioning if their season had come to a devastating end or not.
“We were all really excited about the game, but at the same time, we were kind of nervous.” Revuelto said. “We knew we were the better team, but we weren’t locked in, made some stupid mistakes, and it costed us the game when they scored on us in the last seven minutes.”
Madison Woolridge, a junior cybersecurity major and forward for the team, had also recognized the hurt from the loss, but also knew it could not stop them from getting back up.
“One thing the coach always says, right, is that this is the only year we’ll play with this team,” Woolridge said. “When you make history with this one team, this is the team you’re making history with.”
After the loss, the team headed back to Union, where they waited to see if they would receive a bid in order to advance to Nationals.
At 6p.m. on Monday night, however, Upon received the historical news that they would be advancing to Nationals, and would get to play against Nova Southeastern Nova Southeastern University on Friday, Nov. 22 at 3 p.m.
This was the exciting news that would ultimately give them the fighting spirit they needed into the last leg of their season heading into this weekend’s game.
“The main goal was to make it to the conference tournament and clinch the first game at home, which we did. So that was really exciting and then after that the main goal was to win the conference,” Revuelto said. “We were all looking for that goal instead of for our own successes.”
Reaching the team’s goal of making it to the national tournament is a huge success for the lady Bulldogs, but with this huge success brings in even more expectations going into this coming weekend.
“We’re not just a little baby school, we’re trying to be top dog,” Woolridge said. “If you want it and you fight for it, you can get it.”
Making it to nationals not only gives them the hope of bringing home a national title, but also raises the bar for them to level up as a program going into next season.
“All of us making history is a thing that none of us were expecting to do this year, and the fact that we are doing it is really cool,” Revuelto said.
Union will open play Friday, Nov. 22 in Pensacola, Florida at 3 p.m. versus 5-seed Nova Southeastern University.