SHREVEPORT, La.- The Western Illinois women's soccer team locked up The Summit League regular season championship with a 2-0 defeat of Centenary at Mayo Field.

"The team is excited, but there hasn't been any big celebration yet," stated Western Illinois head coach Tony Guinn. "They know that this is just another step towards our ultimate goal of winning the conference tournament. There's still a lot of soccer left to be played and more to accomplish."

"It's an incredible feeling," said senior midfielder Bess Rapp (Lincoln, Neb./Southeast) of improving from a team that finished 1-5-0 in the conference her freshman year. "I couldn't have asked for a better senior year. We're still motivated though and we're going to keep working hard in order to win the conference tournament."

The Westerwinds (14-2-1, 7-0-0 The Summit League) and the Ladies (5-12-2, 0-6-2 The Summit League) played to a 0-0 draw in the first half with neither team getting good looks on goal.

"Centenary played us tough tonight," said Guinn. "It was their senior night so they had extra motivation to get a win."

Senior Misako Inaba put Western Illinois up 1-0 in the 67th minute of the game, when she received a cross from senior Robyn Ruypers (Petrolia, Ontario/Lambton Central Collegiate) and found the back of the net. It was Ruypers' team-leading sixth assist of the season. Junior Ashley Hoch (Brookfield, Wis./Central) also picked up an assist on the play.

Hoch then gave the Westerwinds an insurance goal 10 minutes later when she received a pass from Inaba and unloaded a shot past Ladies' goalkeeper Ali Hilsher.

"We really needed that goal from Hoch late in the game," Guinn stated. "She shows up to play every night for us. She's probably the best female athlete I have ever coached and I'm very lucky that she is only a junior."

The defense also showed up to play against Centenary. In the 90 minutes of play, Western's defense only allowed the Ladies three shots while none of the shots reached keepers Meghan Tyk and Jessica Walsh.

With the win, the Westerwinds will enter next weekend's Summit League Championships with the number one seed. Western also set a record for most conference wins in a season, surpassing the 2003 Oakland team that recorded a 6-0-0 record. The Westerwinds also set a school record for wins in a season passing the old record of 11 set by the 2006 squad. All of this has come in Coach Guinn's first-year at the helm.

"Coach Guinn really brought the chemistry to this team," said Rapp. "He really got us to click together and found a starting line-up that worked. We've always been equal with every other team in the conference individually, but he made us talented as a team."

The Westerwinds will wrap up regular season play when they travel to Oral Roberts, Sunday, November 4, at 2 p.m. at ORU Soccer Complex.