GOLDEN, COLORADO – Despite ending the season unbeaten in nine games, Lions soccer's (16-5-1) season ended on Friday in a 1-1 tie, with Colorado School of Mines advancing on Penalty Kicks 4-2.
 
Anitra Wright got the Lions on the board ten minutes into the game with a booming left-footed shot from thirty-five yards away from the frame. Orediggers keeper Jalyn Yates couldn't get to the corner in time, and with the goal, Mines' lengthy shutout streak evaporated at 770 minutes. Wright led all Lions on the day with four shots, two of which were on goal.
 
"The ball was on the opposite side, and one of the midfielders hit it up," said Wright, who finished the season with three goals and four assists, "I ran up the middle, and it was one on one. I looked up and saw that the keeper was out of the goal, so I just fired it, and it went in. I had no idea about her shutout streak, but now that I know, it's cool to be the one to break it."
 Mines applied significant pressure through the remainder of the half, outshooting A&M-Commerce 6-2 in total, which included knocking two shots off the crossbar. It wasn't until early in the second half, after a third shot off the crossbar from sophomore Cari Smith, that senior midfielder Nicho Cusack headed in the rebound past junior keeper Courtnie Northern for her third goal of the year, tying things at 1-1.
 
The Orediggers outshot the Lions 15-8 after ninety minutes of action, but the Lions defense didn't break under the relentless wave of shots, sending the game to sudden-death overtime.
 
The first overtime yielded no significant scoring chances for either team, which led to a second overtime period, which also saw conservative play on both ends. Between the two overtime periods combined, both teams put up a grand total of three shots between the two of them. Thus, the game advanced to penalty kicks. Through four rounds, the Lions had made two attempts from Anitra Wright and Vicky Back, but Jade Bell and Laura Heron's attempts careened off the post. With the Orediggers making all four of their attempts, the game was sealed.
 
"I thought we fought hard. Once we got the lead, I thought we were hard to score against," said head coach Neil Piper, who wraps up the sixth NCAA Tournament appearance of his 17-year career, "I thought their goal was dodgy. It looked offsides, but that's what you get. You come to Colorado Mines, and they got the breaks on the calls today."
 The game was hard-fought for the Lions, who struggled with injuries throughout the contest. Defender Taylor Rhodes was forced to exit with a lower body injury near the end of the first half. Wright dealt with illness during the game. Several players experienced symptoms of playing at high altitude. Still, A&M-Commerce gave the Orediggers all they could handle before finally being knocked out.
 
With their NCAA tournament over, the Lions wrap up a 2014 campaign that ranks as arguably the second-most prolific season in the twenty-year program history, falling short only to the 1999 season in which the Lions made the Elite Eight before falling 2-1 to Cal Poly Pomona. In both seasons, the Lions finished first in the LSC in the regular season before winning LSC Tournament championships.
 
"It was a fantastic year," said Piper, "We won eight in a row to get to this spot. We're disappointed that we didn't advance, but we got a couple conference championships, we hosted an NCAA Tournament game for the first time, and I couldn't be prouder."