By Oaklee Fielder, Sports Editor
The Lady Ranger soccer team played in the Great American Conference championships against Harding University, where they lost 4-0 on Friday and were eliminated.
The Lady Rangers were able to make the GAC playoffs after their tie against Southern Nazarene University the week before the playoffs. They were the fourth seed and were set to face Harding University, which defeated the Lady Rangers twice in the regular season, 3-0 on Oct. 9 and 3-1 on Nov. 1. If the Lady Rangers were going to win this game, it would take the best skills they had and luck.
Taylor Annen was the goalkeeper for Northwestern.
The game started with two quick shots from Northwestern’s Jordan Fawcett in the 6th minute and Luana San Miguel in the 11th minute. Just four minutes later, Harding scored the first goal of the game and took an early lead in the semifinal game.
Northwestern continued to pound the net in hopes of a goal. Kamalei Kealoha gave a shot in the 23rd minute, but it missed just over. Not long after, San Miguel also gave a shot on net, but it was saved by the Bison goalkeeper. The Harding offense then decided to give it a shot and gave Annen a couple to test her skills. Annen saved one, and the other missed, keeping the Lady Rangers back by just one and another half to play.
The second half started with two shots from Harding just 55 seconds in. Neither shot went in, and the game pushed on. In the 49th minute, Christi-Anne Mills made a shot, but it was saved by the Harding goalie. Harding made attempts and had two corner kicks, but neither increased their lead. Fawcett had a shot in the 62nd minute, but it missed just left and over. Then, the Bison offense really started ramping up. They had four shots in under 10 minutes, and Northwestern had zero. Eight minutes into the Harding shot spree, they scored a goal in the 76th minute to give them the lead 2-0 with just 15 minutes left in play.
Just 30 seconds later into the game, the Bison score again to make it a 3-goal game. Then, just four minutes later, the Bison scored again to make it a 4-0 game with almost no hope for the Lady Rangers to come back.
In the last 10 minutes, Fawcett, San Miguel and Kealoha all gave shots, but none of them entered the back of the net to get Northwestern back into the game. Time kept ticking and eventually ran out, and the Lady Rangers were eliminated from the Great American Conference Championships.
San Miguel led the Lady Rangers in shots as she had three and two on goal. Fawcett was a close second with three and one on goal. Annen recorded four saves against the Bison.
Annen had the most saves in the entire Great American Conference. She had a total of 100 saves over the year and an .847 save percentage. She also had the most shutouts in the GAC with eight. She had the second-best goals against average with 1.00 goals against per game on average.
Christi-Anne Mills had the sixth most shots in the GAC with a total of 45, 2.37 per game on average. She also tied for the second-most goals scored in the GAC with five other players. She scored a total of seven goals over the 2025 season. She also had the second-most shots on goal in the season with 25. She tied with two other players for fifth for most points in the season with 15.
Jenna Mills tied for fourth in the most assists in the season with four.