On a windy Sunday afternoon, the ORU women’s soccer team closed out the regular season at home with 1-0 loss to Omaha, at the Case Soccer Complex. However, the Golden Eagles had already clinched a spot in the Summit League Championship and will be the No. 4 seed in the tournament.

The 2022 Summit League Women’s Championship bracket was revealed by league officials on Sunday. Denver earned the No. 1 seed after clinching the outright regular season title following a road win against Kansas City earlier in the day.

The six-team, single-elimination tournament will feature two quarterfinal matches on Friday, Oct. 28, and two semifinal contests on Sunday, Oct. 30 with the championship game being played on Saturday, Nov. 5. All five matches will be streamed free of charge on thesummitleague.org/watch.

 This is the seventh time that the Denver Pioneers have won at least a share of the Summit League regular season crown and enter the championship as the No. 1 seed for the fourth year in a row. Denver will be a host for the first weekend of the tournament and receives a bye into the semifinals.

South Dakota State, the No. 2 seed for the fourth straight season, joins the Pioneers as a host and will receive a bye into the semifinals with a 13-0-5 overall mark and a 7-0-2 league record. The Jackrabbits remain the lone unbeaten team in all of Division I women’s soccer following a 2-0 victory at North Dakota State in the regular season finale.

With Omaha’s win against ORU, the Mavericks moved ahead of ORU in the standings and enter the postseason tournament as the No. 3 seed. The Mavericks, who finished League play with a 4-2-3 mark, are making their third straight Summit League Championship and fourth overall appearance.

Oral Roberts is the No. 4 seed after posting a 4-5 mark in League play under first-year head coach Austin Risenhoover. The Golden Eagles, a two-time Summit League Tournament champion, are making their 12th postseason appearance and own the tiebreaker with fifth-seeded NDSU after defeating the Bison, 2-0, on October 9.

NDSU secured its 11th Summit League postseason berth in program history and will be looking to earn its second tournament title in program history. The Bison concluded the regular season with a 4-5 League record.

North Dakota captured the final spot in the field thanks to a 1-0 victory in a must-win clash with South Dakota on Sunday. The Fighting Hawks finished in a tie with the Coyotes in the final League standings as both finished with a 3-4-2 mark and earned the No. 6 seed by holding the head-to-head advantage over USD.

In Friday’s opening quarterfinal, No. 4 Oral Roberts plays No. 5 North Dakota State in Denver at 3:00 p.m. CENTRAL. The second quarterfinal will be played in Brookings between No. 3 Omaha taking on No. 6 North Dakota at 6 p.m. CT.    The winner of Friday’s first match will take on top-seeded Denver at 1 p.m. MT on Sunday, Oct. 30 in the first of two semifinal matches. The other semifinal contest will pit No. 2 seed South Dakota State against the winner of Friday’s No. 3 vs. No. 6 contest at 3 p.m. CT.

The winners of the semifinal matches will vie for the League championship title on Saturday, Nov. 5, with the highest remaining seed hosting the match. The winner will be crowned the 2022 Summit League women’s soccer champions and earn and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

ORU MEN’S SOCCER

The Golden Eagles men’s soccer team has also clinched a spot in the Summit League postseason; however, they still have two regular season matches to play.

ORU is currently in first place in the Summit League standings with a 5-1 record. The Golden Eagles are 9-3-2 overall.

The Golden Eagles will play at Western Illinois this Saturday at 3:00 p.m. Central, and will wrap up the season at home on Nov. 5 at 1:00 p.m. against Southern Indiana.

The Summit League men’s championship will begin on Nov. 10, and will be hosted by Denver.

TULSA BEACON WEEKEND

My guests this week on the “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show will include author, speaker and consultant Jim Whitt from Purpose Unlimited, and Christian comedian and author Chonda Pierce. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. on 970am KCFO.