This past Sunday marked the start of the 35th edition of the GLVC Men's Soccer Championship Tournament, as well as the 19th annual event for the women. On Friday, the remaining eight teams from both genders will converge on Quincy, Ill., for the semifinals and tournament final, with sights set on the GLVC Championship trophy.
As chronicled in the
first edition of 35|35, Quincy University has a storied tradition in both men’s and women’s soccer, so perhaps it is fitting that the two ballclubs garnered the top seed in their respective tournaments and earned the right to host the conference’s top teams on Jack McKenzie Field at Legends Stadium.
This year marks just the second time in league history that both genders have played their GLVC Championship Tournament at the same site. In 2010, former GLVC member Northern Kentucky earned the men’s title but fell in the women’s title match on its home turf.
Between the two Quincy programs, however, only two GLVC Championships have been won, with the women earning their first conference crown last year while the men earned the 2011 title in McKenzie’s final season in his legendary coaching career.
Southern Indiana has won the GLVC Men's Soccer Championship a record 10 times with the Eagles last title coming in 1991. Lewis has earned eight titles, while former GLVC members Northern Kentucky and SIU Edwardsville captured five and four crowns, respectively. Rockhurst, the defending GLVC Champion, follows with three conference titles, while Drury, Quincy, UW-Parkside and former conference member IPFW have each claimed one league crown.
On the women’s side, former GLVC member Northern Kentucky leads the conference with seven league titles, followed by UW-Parkside with four crowns and Saint Joseph's with two. Five schools have claimed one GLVC Championship apiece, including Bellarmine, Drury, Indianapolis, Lewis and Quincy.
In recent years, both tournaments have provided quite the headlines.
Despite outscoring their opponents 6-1 in tournament play last year, the top-seeded Rockhurst men had to deal with sixth-seeded Missouri-St. Louis, which was making its first appearance in the GLVC Championship in 1999. The Tritons' trip to the finals also marked the third-straight team outside the top-four seeds to advance to the title game, as No. 7 Drury fell 2-1 in double-overtime to No. 4 Drury in the 2011 final, while eighth-seeded Indianapolis was blanked 3-0 by No. 2 Northern Kentucky in 2010.
Last year on the women’s side, the top-two seeded teams met in the tournament final for the fourth time in the past five years. No. 1 seed Quincy earned its first-ever GLVC Championship after finishing runner-up in 1995, 2009, and 2011. The Lady Hawks captured a 1-0 shutout over No. 2 William Jewell, which made the GLVC postseason event in its first year of eligibility.
Quincy netted just two goals over three tournament games, but kept their opponents scoreless in each contest. The Lady Hawks survived a scare from No. 8 seed Drury in the quarterfinals, advancing 2-0 on penalty kicks following a scoreless tie and then blanked No. 5 Rockhurst in the semifinals, 1-0.
The women’s soccer tournament has also been known to have its championship final go extra sessions as four of the previous 18 final matches have been pushed to double-overtime with the GLVC Champion eventually decided on penalty kicks.