Blazer Athletics has seen a wealth of success through the years with numerous championships, NCAA Tournament appearances and individual national honors, but it all started with the 1990 College of Saint Benedict soccer team.
That year, in just their seventh year of competition, they made a run to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament, becoming the first team in the history of Blazer Athletics to advance to the national semifinals.
The Blazers went 15-5-1 on the season, scoring NCAA Tournament wins over Saint Mary’s University and Macalester College along the way, before falling 3-1 in the Final Four to eventual national runner-up Cortland State, ending the record-making run.
Looking at the 1989 season as a gauge for what was to come the following year, one would have been hard pressed to pick the Blazers as a national contender. That season the Blazers went just 4-3-0 in MIAC play finishing in fifth place. In 1988 and 1989 the Blazers won a combined six conference games, but that all changed the following year.
In 1990 they ran off a 5-2-1 MIAC record to finish second, while racking up a 13-4-1 overall mark on the regular season. The season included a pair of four-game winning streaks, and a 12-game stretch where they lost just once. After dropping the MIAC opener to St. Thomas, they had only one additional loss, dropping a narrow 1-0 decision to eventual champion Saint Mary’s.
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And when the NCAA Tournament rolled around they evened the score, ending the seasons of two of their MIAC foes, avenging the loss to Saint Mary’s with a 1-0 win in the first round, before a 1-0 win over Macalester in the second.
They won by an average score of nearly 3-1 per game on the year, while goalkeeper Kathy Yarnott Lowry posted seven shutouts in the net, including both NCAA Tournament games in regional play. Nine times on the season, the Blazers scored four goals or more in a game, while notching multiple goals 12 times in 21 matches.
At season’s end, Yarnott Lowry was named NCAA DIII Goalkeeper of the Year, while becoming just the fifth athlete named All-American in school history. Teammate Colleen Neary was also honored that season as the MIAC Player of the Year after leading the league with 20 points on nine goals and two assists. Joining Yarnott Lowry and Neary as award winners were Ki Martinson Carlson, Laurie Westman Huotari and Sharon Welle Swallen who each received All-MIAC honors as well.
The 15 wins at the end of the season remain a program record, tied twice but never beaten, and they are the only team in program history to play in the national semifinals. Blazer volleyball joined them just a week later, but the 1990 soccer team will always stand as the first team in Blazer Athletics history to play in the Final Four.
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