Triad seals MVC girls soccer crown
By Anthony Jones
TROY — Once again, Triad girls soccer has claimed the Mississippi Valley Conference championship.
Their path to a 24th title was not free from dramatics, however.
To clinch the outright league title, the Lady Knights traveled to Waterloo on Apr. 25. Entering that contest, the last eight meetings between the Bulldogs and Lady Knights had been won by the home team.
The match featured the elements the rivalry has come to be known for: physicality and defensive prowess. These qualities helped keep the contest 0-0 through 80 minutes of play, calling for overtime.
Under conference rules, overtime features two 10 minute halves with no golden goal.
However, it would only take one half for the scoreless draw to end.
Triad’s Alina Ayran delivered the early overtime tally, scoring off a 34 yard rush downfield that required dribbling by a pair of defenders before culminating in a 20 yard blast to the far corner. Kamryn Bohnenstiehl assisted on the goal that pushed the Lady Knights ahead 1-0.
The Ayran strike would prove to be the only tally in overtime, leaving Triad with a 1-0 victory.
Sophomore keeper Payton Hartmann recorded the solo shutout in net for the visitors, recording six shots across 100 minutes.
With the road win, the Lady Knights improved to 8-0 in Mississippi Valley Conference. Waterloo fell to 4-3 in league play, with two of their defeats coming against Triad.
While Triad has already clinched an outright conference title, two league games remain on their schedule. The next is scheduled for Apr. 30, when they visit Civic Memorial and the latter is a May 2 hosting of Jersey.
If the Lady Knights sweep those remaining matchups, they would be the first team to finish with a 10-0 league mark since they did in the spring of 2021. Triad has finished 9-1 in conference play in the two seasons since then, including their 25-1 state championship campaign in 2022.
Triad picked up a non-conference victory last week as well, defeating Belleville West 1-0 on Apr. 22.
The lone tally of the affair came in the twenty-first minute, when a Maddie Hunt corner kick was deflected towards London Looby. Looby aimed through a pair of defenders in a crowded box for the decisive tally.
Hartmann recorded a shutout in net, marking her eighth of the season. The Lady Knights have shutout 8 of their last 9 opponents as part of an 11-1 run to improve their overall record to 12-4.
Triad also found success off the field last week, as they earned a number one seed for the IHSA postseason.
The Lady Knights, who will host their regional, are set to open postseason action in the regional semi-final round against ninth-seeded Salem on May 14. A win there would advance them to the May 17 regional final against the winner of fourth-seeded Highland or seventh-seeded Centralia.
A Triad victory would place them in the Freeburg Sectional semifinals, which will be played on May 21. The sectional final is slated for May 24, with top-seeded Waterloo ranked as the favorite from the other side of the bracket.
Triad will also host the Super-Sectional contest scheduled for May 28.
Alina Ayran races upfield in recent conference action. (Photo by Anthony Jones)
