MANKATO, Minn. - Concordia-St. Paul soccer (7-6-5, 7-4-4 NSIC) fell 1-0 to the #13 Minnesota State Mavericks (13-1-4, 11-0-4 NSIC) in the regular season finale on Thursday afternoon at the Maverick Sports Complex-The Pitch.
 
The Golden Bears will get an immediate rematch with the Mavericks in the first round of the NSIC Tournament on Halloween (10/31). Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. at the Maverick Sports Complex-The Pitch in Mankato. The winner of that contest will face the winner of Minot State and Northern State on Friday, November 4th. 

"Today we came across a very strong team, of course, competed very well and felt unlucky to not be one or two goals up at halftime," Head Coach Steve Bellis commented after the match.
 
"The second half was also a close one; to be honest, we gave them very few chances," Bellis added.
 
Bellis concluded with, "I'm proud of our young squad and how we played today, and now we cross our fingers and hope for some other scores to go our way so we can keep playing."
 
CSP and MSU traded possessions in a back-and-forth scoreless first half of play. The Mavericks held a 5-to-4 shot advantage over the Golden Bears, while CSP held a 3-to-1 advantage in shots on goal.
 
Nikki Anderson led the Golden Bears in the first half with two shots on goal in the eighth and 30th minutes. Both attempts required the Mavericks goalie, Mackenzie Rath, to make impressive saves.
 
Sophie Pawlyshyn was the other Golden Bear to add shots in the first half. She had a shot on goal that came in the 9th minute that was collected in the lower left section of the goal, and a shot blocked in the 30th minute.
 
The NSIC leader in both goals and points, Jenny Vetter, broke the tie in the 59th minute with the assist coming off a corner kick by Brynn Densen.
 
The Golden Bears turned up the offensive attack with a pair of shots on goal from Pawlyshyn in the following minutes, but the Mavericks keeper would add to her total on the day.
 
However, MSU would regain momentum and control of the possession time with the final three shots of the match to secure the victory and claim the NSIC Regular Season Championship.

Ashlyn Waldon (6-6-3) returned to the goal for the Golden Bears after missing the last two games. She would collect one save in the match. 

Brittany Bordson, Harper Smoot and Tori Miller each saw the field for the entire 90 minutes for the Golden Bears.