After years of waiting, heartbreak after heartbreak, and two successful seasons, both the Scots and Lady Scots headed to the NCAA Division III Soccer Tournaments after sweeping the USA South. This marked the first NCAA appearance and third ever national appearance for the Lady Scots, and the second NCAA and tenth overall national appearance for the Scots. It’s an impressive feat to win one of the notably competitive USA South soccer titles, and it’s especially sweet to win both.
The Lady Scots had an exciting regular season buoyed by an upset win over then-conference-favorites Maryville, but they seemed to explode into life when the playoffs rolled around. They rolled past Meredith at home to secure a date with #1-seeded Methodist, where they put together arguably their best performance of the season in a 3-1 victory fueled by two assists from Kailey Burrell ‘22 and three goals from some of Covenant’s star freshmen.
The Scots ran into the West Division’s #1 team in Piedmont in the conference finals, a team they had lost to in the regular season, but nothing could stop Covenant as the Scots would prevail 1-0 on an 86th minute goal from freshman Emma Riggs. Kailey Burrell would lock up tournament MVP to go along with her USA South Player of the Year award, and coach Mark Duble would lock up his 13th conference title and first NCAA bid in his 28 years of coaching at Covenant.
While the Lady Scots certainly had an entertaining run to the conference title, nothing could top the drama on the men’s side. While undefeated in conference play, the Scots received the #2 seed in the West, so while they hosted their first round game and turned the advantage into a 3-1 win over Greensboro, they then joined the Lady Scots in a road trip to North Carolina to face tournament hosts William Peace in the semifinals.
The East #1 seed wouldn’t go down without a fight, as two Covenant goals in the first half were answered to bring the score to 2-2. William Peace would take the lead early in the second half and appeared to be on their way into the finals, but junior Jay Patterson picked the perfect time to score his first career goal in the 86th minute to bring the two teams to overtime. An incredible ending to regulation was then somehow topped by a ridiculous goal from fifth-year-senior Jake Major with only seconds left on the clock in double overtime, lifting the Scots to a 4-3 victory.
The semifinal win was sweet, but the Scots had been to these finals the past three years and not won silverware and were determined not to let that happen again against familiar foes NC Wesleyan. However, dreams of an easy win or another overtime winner would prove to be futile as the two teams battled to a 0-0 stalemate, leading to a third straight year of penalty kicks. This time, however, the Scots would leave nothing to chance, led by two saves from Henry Hooks ‘22 and no misses from the Scots takers.
Both teams fought hard in their NCAA tournament matches. The Lady Scots fell 3-1 at #13 Centre College, while the Scots defeated Denison University in the first round before falling 2-1 to the top-ranked Washington & Lee University Generals.