The University of St. Thomas men’s soccer team kept its successful season rolling on Saturday with a 1-0 win over Macalester College in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Championship game.
A record crowd of 350 watched the No. 1 seeded Tommies’ home championship victory and saw Shae Bottum score his 11th career goal in the 52nd minute. St. Thomas senior defender Shane Marshall played a ball into the box which found the foot of Bottum. He hit the ball hard and low past Macalester keeper Zeke Vainer which proved to be the game-winner for his team. The 2nd place Scots were a worthy opponent for St. Thomas, outshooting the Tommies 13 – 6 and forcing goalkeeper Aidan Hogan to make three saves.
The Tommies, led by former Minnesota Thunder assistant coach Jon Lowery, are ranked 12th in the nation (16-1-3) in DIII colleges. Minnesota has no Division I or II men’s college soccer programs, which allows MIAC to be one of the strongest and most competitive DIII conferences in the nation.
The win marks the first MIAC Championship for St. Thomas men’s soccer in the 14 years since the conference playoffs were started. The team also won the conference outright this season with 23 points and a 7-1-2 record. It was the team’s first MIAC title in 25 years.
The win gives the Tommies an automatic berth into the DIII NCAA Championships which will be decided on Monday. St. Thomas has been to the tournament six times but had not gotten a bid to the championships since 1995.
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