And not in a good way.  Tough day for the Dordt teams on the field and courts  on Saturday, October 31.  All entered with high hopes of moving up in standings or holding spots in the GPAC post-season tournaments.  All those hopes were cut short.  Here’s a brief re-cap and the repercussions of those losses.

Women’s soccer lost a 2-1 decision to Midland Lutheran.  The loss allowed Midland Lutheran to leap frog the Defenders into second.  Now the Defenders are the third seed and will host Doane on Thursday, November 5 in the quarterfinals.  Dordt beat Doane earlier this season by a 3-1 count in Crete.  Of note is the fact that Doane didn’t have Samantha Exstrom at the time.  She’s a pure goal scorer and the Defenders will have to account for her on Thursday.  If the Defenders get by Doane they, in all likelihood, will travel to Midland Lutheran for a re-match in the semifinals.  That happens unless there’s an upset.

Men’s soccer dropped a 1-0 decision to Midland as well.  Drops the Defenders from seventh to eighth and locks them up with Hastings on Tuesday, on the road, for a quarterfinal round game.  Hastings is the regular season champ and is the class of the GPAC in men’s soccer.

Volleyball lost a 3-0 decision to Northwestern and fell into a fourth place tie with Hastings.  Hastings gets the tie-breaker with the win over Dordt in earlier October.  The Defenders got no help from Briar Cliff or Dana, who needed to beat Doane and Hastings respectively to give the Defenders a chance at holding fourth with out beating Northwestern.  In fact, Doane tripped Morningside as well on Saturday to tie for second in the league, but they are the third seed heading into the post-season.  Anyhow, Dordt must now host Mount Marty on Wednesday night, and if they win, travel to Hastings to attempt to avenge the loss from this season.

Football had difficulty moving the ball and Briar Cliff dominated time of possession and beat the Defenders by a final score of 30-3.  Next for the Defenders is a game against Sioux Falls on Saturday, November 7.

Working on broadcast arrangements for next Saturday.  Will pass along when everything is in place.