The DePauw men's soccer team was denied an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament last year.
This year, the team didn't test its luck.
The Tigers (16-2-1) toppled the fourth-ranked team in the nation, the Ohio Wesleyan University Battling Bishops (18-2), to earn the NCAC tournament title and an NCAA Div. III playoffs bid by a score of 4-2.
This will be the team's first trip to the Div. III men's soccer championship since 2000.
Last year in the SCAC, the Tigers were held out of the NCAA tournament. So the players took advantage of the NCAC to leave their mark.
Senior goalkeeper Nate Sprenkel and his teammates made the tournament run to get the bid they felt they deserved.
"Last year we felt that we got snubbed by the NCAA by not getting an at-large bid," Sprenkel said. "With the conference tournament, the goal was to win the NCAC and get the automatic bid. We knew we just had to take care of this one game and we're in the tournament."
The Tigers jumped out to an early 3-0 halftime lead with goals from Kreigh Kamman at 4 minutes, 57 seconds, and George Elliot and Sam Meyer with only 30 seconds left in the half.
The lead gave the Tigers lots of confidence going into halftime. But they knew they couldn't let up early against the fourth-ranked team, who had beat the Tigers 10 times in a row.
"We knew we still had 45 minutes to play, but when you're up 3-0 on the No. 4 team in the country, you're feeling pretty good," Sprenkel said. "We know that with OWU, they can score three goals in 15 minutes if they feel like it. We just needed to keep doing what we're doing and we'll come out on top."
The team will play Case Western Reserve University (14-4) in Cleveland, Ohio in the first round of the NCAA tournament.