The women’s soccer team beat Creighton 3-1 on Oct. 26 at the Bud and Jackie Sellick Bowl. Photo by Delaney Hudson.
CALEB DENORME | ASSISTANT SPORTS EDITOR | cdenorme@butler.edu
The women’s soccer team defeated Creighton 3-1 on Oct. 26 to clinch the final spot in the Big East Tournament. Not only did the Bulldogs need to win, they also needed Seton Hall to lose, DePaul to tie or lose and Marquette to tie or lose on the final day of play to sneak into the tournament. Luck favored Butler on the day, with all the results going their way.
Redshirt senior forward Abigail Isger opened the scoring in the 25th minute and from there the Dawgs never looked back. Graduate midfielder Becky Dean dispatched a penalty to make it 2-0 and then Isger scored again to put Butler up 3-0. The Bluejays would pull one back, but it would be too little, too late. The Bulldogs won the game and clinched the sixth seed in the Big East Tournament.
That sent the squad to Connecticut to take on the UConn Huskies. The last time Butler matched up with UConn it turned out to be a highly physical game, ending in a 0-0 draw. The Bulldogs had knocked the Huskies out of the Big East Tournament in the 2021 and 2020-21 seasons, so UConn was looking for revenge.
The Huskies jumped out to an early lead courtesy of graduate midfielder Jessica Mazo’s shot that was deflected by a Butler defender into the back of the net. The hosts doubled their lead 20 minutes later when sophomore forward Chioma Okafor chipped redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Anna Pierce.
Despite the two goal deficit, Butler fought back. Sophomore midfielder Talia Sommer capitalized off a quick freekick on the stroke of halftime to bring the Dawgs back within one. In the second half, first-year forward Norah Jacomen hit a right footed curler into the top corner to equalize.
It was not the Bulldogs’ night in the end. With about a minute to go in the match, Okafor received a long ball behind the Butler defense and replicated her finish from the first half, chipping Pierce and winning the game for the Huskies.
The Dawgs end their season with a record of 6-8-6, going out in the quarterfinals of the Big East Tournament.
