10:51 p.m.: Creighton gets a last chance to salvage what has been a disappointing soccer season when the Bluejays face Drake in Friday’s semifinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.
Win, and the Bluejays get a chance to play for a championship and an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament on Sunday. Lose, and there will be no NCAA trip this season for Creighton.
The Bluejays were talking big at the start of the season, and they had plenty of reasons to be optimistic. Nine starters returned from a team that reached the elite eight of last season’s NCAA tournament. They had three candidates for player of the year honors in Chris Schuler, Seth Sinovic and Byron Dacy.
I’m no soccer aficionado but I do know this much: even in a sport where scores are hard to come by, you have to be able to score to win. Creighton’s lack of offense — the Bluejays have scored 19 goals in 15 games — has negated the excellence it has demonstrated on defense.
The result is a 7-3-5 record that likely won’t impress the members of the NCAA soccer committee when they meet to award at-large bids. That’s why Creighton needs to defeat Drake tonight, which would give the Bluejays two wins and a tie in their last three games over teams in the RPI top 30.
It also would put Creighton in Sunday’s 1 p.m. championship game, where the Bluejays would have a chance to alleviate any doubt by winning the automatic spot.
Creighton’s defense could make it a dangerous team if it can get into the NCAA tournament. But if the offense doesn’t come around this weekend, no one will fear the Bluejays because they’ll be sitting this one out.
--Steven Pivovar
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