CINCINNATI --- The Xavier women's soccer team, 14-7-1 overall, dropped a hard-fought 2-0 match at Illinois on November 8 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, giving XU its first loss since September 20. Xavier peppered the goal area with three successive dangerous shots early in the first half but the Fighting Illini denied XU's bid to take a 1-0 lead. After an XU foul, UI capitalized with a free kick that bounced off a couple Xavier players but still managed to break the plane of the goal line and give the home team a 1-0 lead. UI scored just 49 seconds into the second half to close out the scoring.

This was Xavier's second appearance in the NCAA Tournament. XU also earned a berth in 1998. Xavier advanced to the NCAA Tournament by virtue of a 1-0 win over Dayton on November 5 in the Atlantic 10 Championship title match at XU's Corcoran Field.

The Musketeers tied the school record this season for wins (14) and put together a school record streak of matches without a loss (14 matches), which was snapped by Illinois. That 14-match stretch had included a school record-tying nine-match winning streak. Despite the Illinois loss, Xavier compiled an impressive 13-1-1 record over its last 15 matches after starting the season 1-6.

Xavier completed the regular season portion of the A-10 sched ule with an 8-1-1 record, which was good for second place, but came up even bigger in the A-10 Tournament.

Xavier sophomore goalkeeper Megan Veith (Cincinnati/St. Ursula) recorded a school record 11 shutouts this season in her first year as a Musketeer, including a pair of shutout victories in the A-10 Championship. She lowered her goals against average to 1.08 for all games. She recorded an impressive league-best 0.48 goals against average for A-10 Conference regular season matches and followed that up with a pair of shutouts in the A-10 Tournament.

The NCAA Tournament game loss at Illinois also marked the end of the careers of seven Xavier seniors, including record-setting senior forward Annette Gruber (Cincinnati/St. Ursula), a four-time First Team All-Atlantic 10 Conference selection, Gruber led the team in goals scored (9), assists (9) and points (27) this season, including the game-winning goal in Xavier's 1-0 double overtime win over UMass in the A-10 Tournament semifinals. Gruber finished her career with a school record 35 career assists. She ranks second all-time in career goals scored (53) and points scored (141) to her older sister Amanda, a 1997 All-American.