While everyone is scrambling around for homecoming, the weekend is about more than just American football. The deciding factor for whether or not the Ichabods make it into the MIAA tournament is this weekend.

Over the weekend, the Ichabod’s went 1-1, having fallen to Missouri Western 1-0 Oct. 21, and then defeating Northwest Missouri 2-0 Oct. 23, putting Washburn’s season record to 9-6-1 and their conference record to 5-4.

Missouri Western scored their one and only goal of the game 20 minutes into the first half, putting enough constant pressure onto the Washburn defense that the majority of the game was spent just trying to keep the ball neutral. Missouri Western, at the time ,was equal in ranking to Washburn, but while they lost their second game of the weekend, Washburn won.

The Northwest Missouri game resulted in a 2-0 shutout that held far greater results compared to the Missouri Western game, shooting Washburn back into the four way tie for fifth in the MIAA standings. The Ichabods played their cards right at the game, holding back the aggressive Bearcat offense and shooting the shots they knew they could make. Kaitlin Minnich ended up recording a season high of 10 saves, the ace goalkeeper’s 90 minutes for every game is still running strong.

The goals to highlight in the Northwest Missouri game were scored by Morgan El-Attrache and Kelsi Smith. Emphasizing the point about making their shots count, Washburn took nine shots to Northwest Missouri’s 19 shots. Even when the ball is facing them down, the Ichabods are still thinking ahead towards the goal.

Here’s the MIAA basic rundown. The top three teams have already clinched their spots in the tournament: Central Missouri, Fort Hays State and Central Oklahoma. After that is the mostly shoo-in, Northeastern State. And finally a four way tie fighting for every inch consists of Missouri Western, Washburn, Lindenwood and Emporia State. Our next game on Oct. 28 is against Emporia State.

The spots below the four way tie has the next closest being Nebraska Kearney with a record of 3-4-2. Nebraska Kearney will be playing against Fort Hays State on Oct. 28, meaning the odds are stacked against them unless the second seeded team drops their guard. If they lose that game, Washburn will be in the MIAA tournament regardless of what happens this weekend. The way that Washburn guarantees getting into the MIAA tournament without being the last seed is to win a game this weekend.

On the chance that Nebraska Kearney defeats Fort Hays State, and then goes on to defeat Emporia on Oct. 30, Emporia will actually end up completely out of the tournament., but that could also be Washburn if Nebraska Kearney defeats Fort Hays State and Emporia while Washburn loses to both of them.

So while you are out getting ready for all of your homecoming festivities on Saturday, drop by Yager Stadium Friday night to cheer on the women’s soccer team.