CARTERVILLE, IL (WSIL) -- 2023 is officially here and News 3 Sports is ringing in the New Year with a countdown of the Top 10 sports moments in our region.
On Sunday, we showed you the top five high school moments from 2022. Today, we will reveal the top five college moments from last year.
Starting at number five, Murray State University started 2022 off with a bang. On Jan. 7, the school announced that they accepted an invitation to join the Missouri Valley Conference, leaving the Ohio Valley Conference. The Racers officially became the 11th member of the MVC on July 1. MSU鈥檚 football team will become part of the Missouri Valley Football Conference in 2023.
Speaking of football, let鈥檚 check in with the SEMO football team for moment number four. The Redhawks had a record-breaking year, that was capped off by an OVC Championship. After a coin flip, SEMO advanced to the first round of the FCS playoffs, where they faced Montana. Here鈥檚 SEMO Head Coach, Tom Matukewicz and some Redhawks players on winning the OVC crown.
"It's mind blowing how many unbelievable people have sacrificed so much for this program, this university, and this region," said Coach聽Matukewicz.
Senior Running Back Geno Hess added, "It's a great feeling, like just letting it off your shoulders that you did it and since January we said that we were going to do it and we stood on our word and we accomplished it."
"I mean it's awesome, I mean that was our goal since January, and now to accomplish that now feels great," said Bryce Norman.
We are going to stick with football for number three. The SIU football team did not have the season that they would have liked, but one of their biggest moments came on Sept. 17. The Salukis first win of the season came as a surprise for many. Southern traveled to Evanston, IL to take on Big Ten member, Northwestern, and returned to Carbondale with one of the biggest upsets in school history 鈥� downing the Wildcats 31-24.
Keeping with the Salukis but heading over to the baseball diamond for number two. For the first time in 32 years, the SIU Baseball team clinched the regular season MVC title. Southern finished the regular season a remarkable 40-14 and advanced to the MVC Championship game, where they fell to Missouri State.
Finally, 鈥� let's give the ladies some love for our top college moment of the season. After 1,034 days, the SIU Women's Soccer team got its first win on Sept. 1. The Salukis downed Alabama A&M 2-0 at home to grab their first win since 2019. Southern's 2022 success did not stop there. They went on to advance to the MVC tournament for the first time in program history.
"It feels amazing you know, to finally end that losing streak on a night like tonight, was amazing to all of us it was great to get that lifted off our shoulders and look to that next win, next game," said Senior Liz Brechtel who scored the game-winning goal.聽
It was a big year for our local college and high school area teams, and we are looking forward to seeing what 2023 has in store.
