ABILENE — Nothing is guaranteed when it comes to the postseason.
Ben Allen and Barry Elkins have certainly reiterated that fact to their teams as the schedule turns from the regular season to the ASC Tournament. All that remains of the 2024 season for both the UMHB men’s and women’s soccer teams is the ability to focus on the next match staring right in front of them. A second game at the tournament is far from being set in stone; 90 minutes of win-or-go-home soccer away, to be more precise. Especially when both semifinal opponents have already faced The Cru twice, making this the third meeting since late September.
“When you hit this point, the only guaranteed game is Thursday,” Elkins, in his 13th season as UMHB women’s soccer’s head coach said on Tuesday. “We went into this week knowing we were traveling on Wednesday, so we knew we had a guaranteed Monday practice, a guaranteed Tuesday practice, and a guaranteed game on Thursday. After that, nothing else is guaranteed.”
Allen, whose men’s soccer team enters the tournament as the No. 1 seed for the fourth straight year, made a similar remark when asked about the approach.
“At this point, it’s anyone’s game,” he added. “If you lose, you’re out. You’re done. We’ve got to take it one step at a time.”
Both tournaments will be played in Abilene on Hardin-Simmons’ campus, with Thursday’s semifinals followed by the championship matches on Saturday. The women, who are 12-3-2 overall and the No. 2 seed, meet Howard Payne in a 4 p.m. semifinal on Thursday. With a win, Elkins’ team advances to its seventh ASC championship match in the last eight seasons.
The men get a very familiar opponent in their 1 p.m. semifinal, battling LeTourneau for the second time in five days after winning in Longview, 4-1, this past Saturday.
Motivation is never in short supply at this point in the year. For the men, there is an added sense of effort to make it through the semifinals, seeking to avenge the disappointing 1-0 loss that fourth-seeded UT-Dallas handed them a year ago with the conference tournament being played on their home field. In a similar position this year, the top seed facing the fourth seed in the semifinal, The Cru doesn’t plan on repeating history.
“Few careers and jobs do you have the opportunity to plan for several months out of the year and it all comes down to one week,” Allen said. “It’s fun and exciting. Obviously there’s pressure within that, but we’ve been preparing for this moment for months. I think the guys, especially with what happened last year, are very motivated and hungry and have a different mindset.”
A span of three matches from Oct. 10-19 saw UMHB score just twice, which included a 1-1 tie against the same LeTourneau team the Crusaders are set to face in Abilene. But over the four matches that followed to close the regular season—all wins—UMHB recorded multiple goals in each, averaging 3.5 goals per match. The difference? Increased familiarity within the 3-5-2 formation that Allen switched to just before the start of conference play.
“It was the game plan to look at [the 3-5-2] earlier, but due to injuries and things like that, we just didn’t have the bodies,” Allen noted. “Then we switched and now, we’ve had essentially a month of practice within that system. That’s why we’re seeing them gelling and coming together, just playing really well right now.”
UMHB put nine goals in the back of the net over the course of the two-game swing through East Texas last weekend, which included five goals in the first half of last Thursday’s 5-4 win over ETBU.
“It’s encouraging,” he added. “There have been years, and really, early in the year, when it feels like nothing will go in, or you can’t create enough chances to get a goal. Then there are times when it feels like there’s nothing you can do wrong, everything’s just falling into place, and everything you touch turns to gold. Karsen [Macias] and really all of our forwards were having a tough go early in the year of getting quality shots on goal. And then lately, he’s been a catalyst for us, and not just him but several guys on our team.
“There’s times in any sport where you feel like everything you do is right. Thankfully, right now, we’re in that group and we’re clicking.”
For the Crusader women, this week marks a somewhat familiar trip to Abilene at this point in the year. Five of the six ASC Tournament finals UMHB has appeared in since 2017 have been contested in Abilene, and Hardin-Simmons is in top form yet again this season, holding a perfect 8-0 league record and two wins over The Cru. UMHB’s strength, as it has often been, is on the defensive half of the field, with a consistent back line, experienced midfield, and reliable goalkeepers in Morgan Oliver and Emma Edwards. The Crusaders’ 10 goals allowed are the fewest in the ASC, and just four of those have come in league play.
But even with the exceptional defensive capability, UMHB hasn’t overlooked the attacking component. Offensively, while The Cru has led at halftime in each of its six ASC victories, the 1.5 goals per game average is a number that could be higher. UMHB has totaled 10.4 shots on goal per match in league play, yet finishing on those opportunities is something the Crusaders are looking to do more of in West Texas on Thursday.
“We’ve created a lot of chances and let some of those squander,” Elkins said. “We push for those opportunities and that’s something we’ve talked about. With the LeTourneau match,I thought we could’ve been up 3-0 in the first 10 minutes, yet there we were fighting to score at the end of the half. You don’t know when the opportunities are going to come, so the more we can create helps us, but we also have to be a little more clinical in front of goal, especially early on.”
UMHB comes off a 2-0 weekend in East Texas, with a 3-1 win on a rain-soaked field at ETBU followed by a 1-0 shutout of LeTourneau two days later. In the victory over ETBU, who will face Hardin-Simmons in Thursday’s second semifinal match, it was the Tigers who took a 1-0 advantage in the 12th minute on an unfortunate own goal call against The Cru. But UMHB battled back, holding ETBU to zero shots in the match, and scoring twice in the opening half before padding its lead on a Kennedy Harris goal in the 80th minute. Fighting through that sort of adversity, Elkins said, was a positive for this group heading into a must-win situation this week.
“I was really pleased with that game and how we responded to the adversity and the weather,” Elkins said of the victory at ETBU. “That field was soaked. Those kinds of things, going into the conference tournament, are a positive. Having to respond to something, come back and win. There’s going to be a little bit of rain and we might have to deal with that. Yesterday at practice we had a rain delay, and I was like, ‘You might as well get used to it. These things are going to happen.’ I feel like those things put together prepare us well for what’s coming.”
The other element that puts UMHB in a favorable position as the No. 2 seed is the quality of the seniority on the roster. Natalie Mason leads UMHB in goals scored, with nine. Kelsey White has been a huge contributor from her forward position. Morgan Rathmell and Breland Mungia pace the midfield. Kennedy Harris has contributed significantly from both an offensive and defensive standpoint. Ainsley Westlake, despite being sidelined for much of the season, has also contributed within her role.
“We’re going to lean heavily on the five starters we have [on the field], and I’ll say that as well to the role that Ainsley has had to fill this year, being on the bench and really stepping into that,” Elkins noted. “She plays a big role in what we do. All of the seniors do. Going into this weekend, it’s on the shoulders of those six players, others as well, but those six especially, to carry us through.”
UMHB’s program is one in which the seniors are heavily valued and highly-respected. Year after year, more consistently than many programs, a steady core of seniors has taken charge from a position of leadership and responsibility. All of the work over four, and even for some, five seasons in Belton culminates into a week like this one. The time is coming to an end on what has been six exceptional careers with The Cru, and they head to Abilene not knowing how many more games are left. But they have one guaranteed. And they’re aiming to make every moment leading up to it count.
“That’s what’s always been important to me,” Elkins said. “I want them to enjoy their time. To be proud they played at UMHB. I’m still thinking back to yesterday after practice. We were under the lights because of the time change, and there were about six or seven of them out there on the game field running around, kicking a ball, laughing. I just smiled to myself, because in one sense, I’m like, ‘Y’all go home’ and in another sense, I’m like, ‘No, stay and have fun.’ They were just enjoying what they were doing and being together. We all know it’s coming closer to the end, and you approach it that way.”
Allen’s team has several seniors of its own, including Sawyer Young and Chase Cherrington, two of the three on the roster who have started all 18 matches this fall. Macias, a junior and the team’s leading scorer with six goals, is the other. Having the leadership from the upperclassmen has been key, and this is notably a group that has known nothing except being the top seed in the ASC Tournament. Come tournament time the last four seasons, UMHB’s coaches and players have gotten used to being the ones at the top of the bracket, and dealing with the pressure that naturally stems from that.
“I think it definitely helps,” Allen said of being the top seed in the tournament four years running. “Just being familiar with it and knowing we have a target on our backs. So having the guys come out this week [for practice], it’s not a week off or a medium week where we just take it easy. We’ve got to step on the gas.”
True To The Cru will have ASC Tournament coverage on Thursday afternoon and evening on TrueToTheCru.com and on our Facebook and X/Twitter accounts at @TrueToTheCru.
