This has hardly been the type of senior soccer season that Creighton’s Byron Dacy envisioned for himself.

Dacy started the season as a player-of-the-year candidate. By the middle of October, his playing time had dried up to where he got on the field for four minutes in a key match against Drake.

Some of his struggles, Dacy admits, were his own doing.

"I wasn’t lifting a lot, and my school schedule was only three classes, and I wasn’t doing a lot there,’’ Dacy said. "It all kind of took a toll on me.’’

Thirty days ago, Creighton coach Bob Warming issued Dacy a challenge.

"We told him 30 days ago that in 30 days he would have dropped weight and he would be fitter and stronger,’’ Warming said. "He knew he wasn’t going to play much. He really had to continue to work on his fitness, and boy, has he ever.

"Some days, he’d have two-a-day workouts. Today, he looked like a player who could help us win a national championship.’’

Dacy played 30 minutes in Creighton’s 1-0 victory over seventh-ranked UCLA. He assisted on the winning goal, collecting his first point of the season.

He had the kind of Senior Day performance that seniors are supposed to have.

"It’s really been an up-and-down year, but the coaches have believed in me and made me work hard,’’ Dacy said. "It’s all paying off right now, and hopefully we have a lot more games on our schedule.’’

It would have been easy for Dacy to give in when his final season started heading South. He led the Bluejays in scoring his first two seasons but tore a knee ligament in a 2007 exhibition game, an injury that forced him to miss most of that season.

He came back last season but wasn’t as effective as he had been earlier in his career. Seeing his playing time diminish this season was difficult, he said.

"It’s been frustrating but I knew that I had to stay positive,’’ Dacy said. "I just kept believing that my time was going to come here at the end. Hopefully, things are starting to pick up a little bit.’’

Saturday’s win over a UCLA team ranked second in the RPI could provide the Bluejays with a boost that carries over into Saturday’s regular-season finale at Drake. Creighton also will have to play on Drake’s home field when it competes in the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

The Bluejays might have to win the Valley’s automatic berth in the NCAA tournament to extend their streak of consecutive appearances. Victories in their next two games, coupled with Saturday’s upset of the Bruins, might be enough to put the Bluejays in line for an at-large bid.

Regardless, Dacy is a lot more ready for the challenge than he was 30 days ago.

"We want to finish this thing on a high note,’’ he said.