By Bruce Karnick

Tuesday September 22nd, the girls played host to the Simley Spartans.

“We always have a grinder game against those guys.” Head Coach Scott Meier said in his post-match interview. “We seem to have a lot of players that match up and they always seem to have a lot of height.”. Hastings would win that match 1-0. #9 Bella Meier would get the lone goal with an assist going to #12 Lauren Hubbart. Senior Keeper #0 Kaitlin Petrich would get another shutout stopping all nine shots she faced. Coach Meier did not have the stats readily available, but he thought Raiders had six or seven total shots on goal. The regular season ended with a win for the Raiders, and it was a HUGE win.

When asked about the seeding for the conference championships, Meier said “We have to wait and see how things play out on Thursday to see how the seeding goes. That should be announced Friday.”

Going into Tuesday night, the Raiders were in second place in the standings. This is where preseason changes could hurt the Raiders. Because there was a possibility teams could play fewer games due to any COIVD related issues, it was decided that seeding would be determined by win percentage. That put Hastings in third place for seeding.

After Tuesday, Hastings had won, Hill Murray had won, Mahtomedi had won, and Henry Sibley lost. Based on win percentage, Mahtomedi at 4-0 had locked up first with one game left against Hill-Murray.

Win Percentage Seeding as of Tuesday night.

Mahtomedi 4-0-0100.0% Hill-Murray4-1-175.00% Hastings5-2-071.43% Henry Sibley4-2-1 64.29% Seeding could only be changed because Hill-Murray and Mahtomedi each had one game left to play for the regular season and it would be against each other. If Hill-Murray won, the seeding stays the same, if Mahtomedi won, then Hastings moves to the number two seed, Henry Sibley moves to the number three seed and Hill Murray would be number four. Could Mahtomedi help the Raiders and Warriors?

Hill-Murray was host to the Zephyrs on Thursday night in St. Paul. The score would be tied 0-0 at the half. A defensive battle was taking place and it would not be until 62 minutes had expired that the first goal of the game would be scored. #10 Ariadna Vargas would score unassisted in the 62-minute mark giving the Pioneers the lead. That was all it took for Hill-Murray to get the win behind a seven-shot shut out from keeper #30 Natalie Humbert. That shutout victory for the Pioneers vaulted them over both Henry Sibley and Hastings to lock up first place for the standings in the Metro East Conference and the second-place seed.

While the MEC was waiting for the final tournament schedule to be released, Coach Meier talked about what the Raider Girls will be working on for the conference championship and sections. “We are focusing on building our possession tactics, keep improving our ball control and some of our defending; and improving our speed of play or decisions. We have a few players banged up coming out of the Simley match, so getting healthy is our number one goal right now. I think the keys for us will be to play consistent and have focused intensity. We will also need to play physical to stand our ground or be aggressive in our defending to close down quickly and in the face of the opponent. An additional piece is handling the opponent pressure and making purposeful decisions.”

These top four teams will face each other to determine the conference champion. The Raiders will travel to Hill-Murray on September 29th for a 7:00 match against the Pioneers. They will then host Mahtomedi on October 2nd at Todd Field, 7:00 p.m. and their final game of the round robin tournament will be against Henry Sibley at

#28 Cianna Bernard and #9 Bella Meier fight for control of the ball near midfield in the Raiders 1-0 win against Simley on Tuesday 9/22. Photo by Bruce Karnick