This past Sunday, the Bison soccer team had a chance to do something they hadn’t done since 2016: win a Summit League regular season title. The Bison would take on St. Thomas, who has only won one conference game all season, so it looked favorable for the Bison. Worst case scenario, the Bison lose and would be the no. 2 seed which would still give them a bye heading into tournament play. This all-time series has been pretty even as they are 1-1-1 against one another, so this match had a ton at stake. 

The Bison got out to a slow start as the Tommies had a 1-0 lead heading into halftime. Pretty surprising to most, considering St. Thomas came into this match 1-4-2. Nerves may have set in as most of the players on this current roster have not had this kind of pressure going into a match in their careers. But in the second half, Morgan Russman took over. She scored her 10th goal of the season with 29 minutes left to tie the match at one. This goal would tie the D1 record at NDSU for goals from a freshman. If you thought she was done for the day, you were dead wrong. Russman gave the Herd the lead with 24 minutes to go on a penalty kick to break the record for goals as a freshman for NDSU in the D1 era. This score would hold, and the Bison would go on to clinch the Summit League regular season title and secure the no. 1 seed heading into the conference tournament. 

Morgan Russman led not only the team, but the entire conference in Shots, Shots on Goal, Goals, and Points. She will be a first team All-Conference and will be on the newcomer team when the teams get released. A stellar season for her and the Bison, and it isn’t over yet. The Bison will have a bye and be in position to face the winner of the 4 seed and the 5 seed in the semifinals, and the winner of that would be in the Summit League championship. The bracket heading into the postseason is as follows:

BYE Teams

#1 (BYE)-North Dakota State (6-1-1)

#2 (BYE)-Denver (5-1-2)

Quarterfinals

To face #2 Denver- #3 South Dakota State (5-2-1) vs #6 South Dakota (1-3-4)

To face #1 North Dakota State- #4 Omaha (4-1-3) vs #5 Oral Roberts (3-2-3)

Semifinals 

#1 North Dakota State vs Winner of #4 Omaha/#5 Oral Roberts

#2 Denver vs Winner of #3 South Dakota State vs #6 South Dakota

Championship

Semifinals winner vs Semifinals winner

The Bison will face the winner of Omaha and Oral Roberts at home at Dacotah Field on Thursday, Nov. 7th. If they win, they will host the Summit League title game on Sunday, Nov. 10th, and if they win, they will secure the auto-bid into the NCAA tournament.