Grizzlies unable to make it out of pool play, season comes to a close in Georgia

The Butler Soccer team fell to No. 2 Salt Lake (UT) 4-0 on Thursday morning and 2-1 to Seminole State College (OK) on Friday closing out their season at the National Tournament.

Butler, who finished the year 8-10, came into the National Tournament as the No. 11 seed and had a tall order in front of them to make it out of pool play. Salt Lake was the nation's number-one ranked offense coming into the tournament and Seminole State had only one loss coming into the tournament.

The Grizzlies held their own for the first 21 minutes of the contest against the Bruins but Salt Lake, who made it out of the pool and is in the final four, came alive midway through the first half scoring three goal in a span of eight minutes to take a 3-0 lead. They tacked on one more insurance goal at the 52^nd minute mark to put the game out of reach for Butler. The Grizzlies were unable to get any kind of offensive flow as they did not record a single shot during the game. The Bruins were the aggressor and put up 13 shots on goal, nine of which were saved by Butler keeper Maggie Koster. 

In game two of pool play against Seminole State, Butler was the aggressor taking a 1-0 lead early in the game after a goal was scored by Ellie MacDonald on a set piece at the 17-minute mark of the first half. The Grizzlies held onto that 1-0 lead much of the game, but a goal at the 68-minute mark tied the game at 1-1. It appeared as if the game would go into overtime but a late goal by Alexis Truitt of the Lady Trojans gave Seminole a 2-1 lead with just six minutes remaining in the game. Butler was not able to tie it up and their season came to a close.

Butler mustered up four shots on goal in the loss scoring on one of them. The Lady Trojans put up nine shots on goal, with Maggie Koster posting seven saves while allowing two to get by.

"I was happy to see our resiliency show in the game against Seminole," said head coach Adam Hunter. "We could have easily given up after the Salt Lake loss, but this group didn't. They continued to fight and had a chance against a really good Seminole team."

Seminole State and Salt Lake tied in their game against each other with the game coming down to penalty kicks. No. 2 Salt Lake won 3-2 off PK's and head to the final four with No. 1 Tyler, No. 3 Eastern Florida State and No. 4 Snow for a chance at a title.

With the condensed schedule of games this season due to COVID, the Grizzlies played only 13 regular season games compared to the regular 20 finishing the year, after postseason 8-10. Butler won their 10^th Region VI title in program history and qualified for the National Tournament for the eighth time under head coach Adam Hunter and made their first appearance since the 2018 season.

The Grizzlies will have a quick turnaround as they will get back on schedule playing their season this coming fall. They will get back to a 20-game regular season schedule with the hopes of making another playoff run and trip back to the NJCAA Div. I National Tournament.