ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University soccer team has a history of making things interesting at the end of the season. For the past two years, the Wildcats have waited until the final day of the regular season to clinch their spot in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoffs. This season, it was no different, but St. Kate's was once again able to claim its spot in the conference tournament thanks to a 4-2 win over Hamline University Saturday afternoon.

Both the Wildcats and Pipers were in a position to clinch the sixth and final spot in the MIAC postseason tournament, as either team needed to simply win to get into the tournament. Due to that single fact, Saturday's game was filled with plenty of drama, with six goals score and four bloody noses earned between the two teams.

St. Kate's was the first team to score in the game, as Maddie Conners (Lake Elmo, Minn. / Hill Murray) scored her team-leading fifth goal of the game to give the Wildcats a 1-0 lead. After Molly Hayes (South St. Paul, Minn. / South St. Paul) managed to gain control of the ball at midfield, she hit a cross to Allie Bird (Maple Grove, Minn. / Maple Grove) half way to the Hamline goal. Bird then hit Conners in the corner, who hit the ridiculous angle shot to give St. Kate's the 1-0 lead at 7:27 in the first half.

St. Kate's wasn't done scoring after Conners opening goal. The Wildcats were awarded a free kick after drawing a Piper foul in the 26^th minute. Iryna Talkachova (Minsk, Belarus / Shattuck-St. Mary's) then hit a laser past a diving Kat Anderson to extend St. Kate's lead to 2-0.

The Wildcat defense managed to hold Hamline's offense at bay for the remainder of the first half, resulting in a 2-0 score at halftime. The Pipers, though, came out firing at the start of the second half and scored a quick goal on a corner kick to cut St. Kate's lead to 2-1.

Fortunately, the Wildcats answered with a goal of their own just moments later. Amanda Carey (Hudson, Wis. / Hudson) managed to gain control of the ball and streaked up the near side of the field, earning a one on one opportunity against Anderson. While Anderson managed to get a hand on Carey's kick, Bird was there waiting for the rebound and booted the ball to the back of the net to give St. Kate's a 3-1 advantage.

Hamline managed to get the ball past senior goalkeeper Jessica Perez-Adame (San Jacinto, Calif. / San Jacinto) for a second time as Arendje Louter beat every Wildcat defender to cut the lead to 3-2 at 61:30. That score held for the next 23 minutes until Shannon Hickey (Eden Prairie, Minn. / Visitation) clinched the win for St. Kate's in the 84^th minute. Hickey was awarded a penalty kick after the Pipers committed a foul in the box and certainly did not miss her shot, hitting a laser past Anderson to secure the 4-2 win for St. Kate's.

Five different Wildcats scored in the victory, while Perez-Adame made four saves and allowed two goals in 90 minutes of play.

With the win, St. Kate's overall record improved to 7-6-3 and the team finished the MIAC season with a record of 5-3-3. More importantly, with the win, the Wildcats secure the sixth and final spot in the MIAC Postseason Tournament. St. Kate's will be the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will play on Tuesday, October 31. More details will be available in the upcoming days.