CHEYENNE, Wyo. – The Western Nebraska Community College women's soccer put together a decent run at a regional title despite having 13 players and ended their season Friday afternoon, falling to Western Wyoming Community College 1-0 in the semi-finals of the Region IX tournament in Cheyenne.

                Western Wyoming will face Laramie County Community College for the Region IX title on Saturday at 1 p.m. with the winner advancing to the NJCAA national tournament June 3-8 in Evans, Georgia. LCCC defeated Northeastern Junior College 5-1 in the earlier semifinal.

                WNCC head coach Todd Rasnic said they had a good season considering the circumstances of a pandemic season.

                "You have to take your hats off to the girls. They battled through an awful lot of adversity this year and they learned a lot about the game and about themselves. They learned how to play when things are not going your way. All-in-all I think they did an outstanding job."

                Friday's game was a matter of Western Wyoming having too much depth, while the Cougars played 90 minutes with hardly any subs.

                "I think we played as well as we could have given the numbers and the injuries that we compiled over the season," Rasnic said. "We played without Ashley today, who was a starting defense player and that was difficult. There was quite a bit of the dynamics of the team that was missing today."

                Even with the roster-number difference, the Cougars battled and were in the match to the final whistle.

                Western Wyoming scored early, hitting a goal just 14:48 into the match. After that, neither team scored the rest of the first half as the Mustangs led 1-0.

                The second half was a battle. WNCC had plenty of opportunities to score 15 minutes into the contest, but the Cougars just couldn't get a shot to go in.

                The stats were even. Western Wyoming outshot WNCC 14-11. Corner kicks were also equal with the Mustangs recording seven corner kicks while WNCC had six kicks from the corner.

                WNCC goal keeper Ana Von Ruden finished with seven saves in net.

                "They outshot us 14 to 11. We didn't do well with our chances," Rasnic said. "In addition to that, they ran 20 girls at us and they kept running wave after wave of players at us. With no subs, there was no way to battle."

                Right now WNCC returns all but three players for next year, which pre-season practice will start in just a little over two months for the fall season.

                Rasnic said these girls need special recognition for what they had to battle through from the Coronavirus pandemic and the reality that they weren't going to have a lot of players because of international travel restrictions.

                "It is a year that deserves a little bit of special recognition for the athletes and the players who came here," Rasnic said. "We didn't know until right up to school started if we would have several of our players back. These girls were faced with the reality they were going to have to play short-sided all year and beat up. They could have folded, but they pushed it out and took charge mentally and engaged the season with a lot of heart and desire. They ended up playing a pretty good season overall."