A soccer season that began with great expectations ended Monday with even greater disappointment for Creighton.

The Bluejays saw their streak of making it to the NCAA tournament end at 17 — which had been fourth-longest in the nation — when they were left out of the 48-team field. They knew after Friday's 3-1 loss to Drake at the Missouri Valley Conference tournament that it would be a longshot for them to get an at-large berth with a 7-4-5 record.

Still, there was a sliver of optimism present when the team gathered at the Old Market Mattress Factory to watch the ESPN presentation of the seeds and pairings late Monday afternoon. It took only a couple of minutes for any hope to come to an end.

“This morning, I created a list of teams that I thought were there and teams I didn't think were," Creighton sophomore forward Ethan Finlay said. “I figured we'd be in it for one of the final couple of spots.

“There's always a chance for us."

Creighton coach Bob Warming, too, had done the math. The way he and his assistants had it figured, there probably were 45 teams that were locked into the tournament and maybe five others competing for the final three spots.

“We knew that if there were certain teams that we saw up there (on the TV screen), it's not going to be good for us," Warming said. “Depending on how you looked at it, our body of work was greater or at least comparable to those teams.

“But those were the first teams we saw get up there, so it didn't take very long to figure we were not in."

Afterward, Warming met briefly with his team, telling them they would need to turn in their gear at a 3 p.m. meeting today. It will be earliest a season has ended for Creighton since 1991, Warming's first at Creighton.

Naturally, Warming said he felt worst for the seven seniors whose careers have ended. Their return from a team that made the elite eight of last season's NCAA tournament was part of the reason for the lofty expectations in August.

But Creighton lost two of its first five games and tied a third. Although Creighton lost just twice in its final 11 games, the Bluejays did play to four ties, all in Valley play.

“We'll re-evaluate everything, and all of our guys are going to realize how hard we will have to work to get back in," Warming said. “We're not entitled to play in the NCAA tournament. You have to prove it every single day and every single year.

“Bottom line, we just didn't win enough games this year."

Asked what he thought went wrong, goalkeeper Brian Holt said, “We never got the results to get this headed in the direction we wanted it to go. I thought we had a great team and a great group of guys, and we did have high expectations.

“I'm not going to go back and try to pick apart what went wrong. I'm going to use this for the future as a motivating factor to work hard in the spring and have it carry over into next fall. We don't want this to happen again."

Creighton will return Holt, who has posted 21 shutouts in the 35 games he's started the past two season, and Finlay, the team's leading scorer with eight goals and 19 points. Four other players that started the Drake game, including Valley freshman of the year Dion Acoff, also will return.

“We have to remember this moment and how it felt to be in this position," Finlay said. “We don't want to be here again. We need to move forward and learn. We had some seniors that did a lot of stuff for us this year, so we're going to need some guys to step up.

“I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be another year, another test. The next season starts now, and it's going to be up to the players to get right back into it and not lose what we've gained to this point."

Contact the writer:

679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com

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