After winning the Midwest Christian College Conference regular season outright by going 5-0 in conference play, the Barclay College Bears entered the MCCC Soccer Tournament last weekend as the #1 seed, and not only lived up to the expectations, but surpassed them when they were crowned champions Saturday afternoon in Florissant, MO. It was the Bears first MCCC tournament championship since the 1999 season.

In order to win the tournament, the Bears defeated host college #8 St. Louis Christian College, #4 Ozark Christian College (Joplin, MO) and #2 Manhattan Christian College (Manhattan, KS). Last Thursday they easily dispatched St. Louis 7-0 to set up semi-final match with Ozark Christian on Friday afternoon. Earlier in the season, the Bears defeated the Ambassadors 2-1 in Haviland. This time the Bears defeated Ozark 3-0 to set up a final with #2 Manhattan Christian. The Thunder were eager for a rematch with the Bears after suffering a 3-0 loss in Haviland back on Sept. 4th and with both teams ranked in the National Christian College Athletic Association top 10 for most of the season, it looked to be an epic final. The Bears, however, were once again up for the challenge as they finished off Manhattan 2-0 to win their first tournament championship in 15 years.

The Bears improved to 13-1 overall on the season, with their lone loss to NCAA Division II Newman College (Wichita, KS). Next up for the Bears is the NCCAA Division II Southwest Region Tournament. The four team tournament will be hosted in Haviland, KS on Friday, October 31st and the championship will be played at 3:00 PM CST on Saturday, November 1st. The two semi-final match-ups are #3 Dallas Christian College (Dallas, TX) verse #2 Ozark Christian College at 4:00 PM and then #4 Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College (Moore, OK) verse #1 Barclay College at 6:00 PM.