By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
It’s been a productive fall sports season at Missouri Western State University, and at least two programs have deep playoff aspirations.
Athletic Director Andy Carter says MoWest Cross Country had the first ever national qualifier in program history. Griffon women’s soccer is also playing for a chance at the national tournament
Carter says currently the Griffons are on the outside looking in, because conference tournament winners earn an automatic bid, meaning a higher seed, normally has a better chance, however
“Since the top three seeds in our conference all lost in the first round of the conference tournament, we’re the highest seed remaining, there’s somebody in a low seed that would not have gotten into that regional tournament if we don’t win somebody’s going to get in and that could be at our demise,” Carter says on the KFEQmnunnity show. “So, as I told our coach and our players, then it needs to be us, we need to go win the tournament and then earn our way into that tournament.”
MoWest is the fourth seed in the MIAA tournament and will play Northeastern State today for a trip to the championship game at 3pm
Volleyball also is on a roll at MoWest. Carter says the momentum of the volleyball team is in large part thanks to the head coach Jessica Fey (Fi like Wi-Fi] just being able to get her team to play
“It’s really hard for somebody who’s better than the other team to really lose a whole match; they might lose a set and there might be times it doesn’t look good, but this thing plays out they’ve got to beat you three times,” Carter explains. “And so the best teams just don’t get caught up in the emotion of a bad string of points or a bad set, and that’s what our team has shown is this tremendous resiliency.”
Fey won her 100th career match on Friday against Central Missouri. The Griffons are currently on an 11-match win streak.
MoWest could claim its first MIAA crown since 2017 with matches tonight against Fort Hays State and tomorrow against Nebraska Kearney. One win would guarantee at least a share of the title, winning both gives the title outright.
MoWest football wraps up their season on Saturday against Central Oklahoma on Saturday, hoping to wrap up a disappointing season with one more win.
Carter though, despite the current 3-7 record, he still believes this is one of the best coaching staffs he’s worked with in his time as an AD
“And they’re not all winning at the level we want to win at yet, but they’re people of high character, high integrity, we share the same values of what we want to see in the end result, and sometimes it just takes a little longer in some scenarios,” Carter says. “I’ve seen things turned around in a year before, and I’ve things that take four years, so a full four years of recruiting, and it just depends.”
Carter says when you decide to make a change, it has less to do with winning and losing, and more to do with things that the fans are not seeing off the field.
MoWest and Central Oklahoma kickoff on Saturday at 2pm
You can follow Matt on X @KfeqMatt and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.