The Dakota Wesleyan University women's soccer team, in the program's fifth year of existence, clinched a share of its first-ever Great Plains Athletic Conference Championship Tuesday with a 3-0 win over Briar Cliff University in Sioux City, Iowa.

The Tigers also kept their hopes alive for an unbeaten season as the victory improved their overall record to 14-0-3 and their GPAC record to 10-0-1. The share of the conference title is the exclamation point on a remarkable two-year turnaround for third-year head coach Dale Roden's program. Just two seasons ago, DWU was 2-16. Last year, the Tigers improved to 8-9-1 and qualified for their first GPAC Postseason Tournament, and this year, the accelerated improvement has continued with the result of a conference title and the top seed in the GPAC Postseason Tournament.

Dakota Wesleyan can claim the title outright with a win or a tie Saturday in its regular season finale at home against Dana College. The Tigers currently have 31 points in the GPAC standings in a system where a team is awarded three points for a win or one point for a tie. Dordt College can still tie DWU at 31 points with wins in its final two games, but the Tigers won the teams' head-to-head matchup, so if DWU lost Saturday and Dordt won twice, the teams would share the title and Dakota Wesleyan would still have the tournament's top seed.

It didn't take the Tigers long to get on the board in Tuesday's win over the Chargers. Freshman Kim Duff scored the first of her two goals at 5:05 on an assist from Kasha Roberts. DWU took a 2-0 lead at 16:48 when a Briar Cliff player tried to pass back to the goalie and accidentally scored in its own net, and Duff capped off the victory by scoring with just 47 seconds left in the game on an assist from Freshman Abby Hubbard.

Danielle Richardson and the Dakota Wesleyan defense had another great game, holding the Chargers to just four shots, two shots on goal and keeping them off the scoreboard. Richardson made both saves to earn her ninth shutout of the season.

Duff's two goals give her five goals in the team's last three games and pushed her into the team lead with 12 this season. She is just one goal away from tying Ellie Peterson's single-season team record of 13 goals, which was set last season. Duff also leads the team with 26 points. Hubbard now has seven assists, which is a new Tiger single-season record as well.

Dakota Wesleyan's final regular season home game against Dana has been moved to a 1 p.m. start at the Cadwell Park Soccer Complex in Mitchell, S.D. The game will double as Senior Day, and the team's seniors will be honored for their contributions to the program. The Tiger men's game against the Vikings will follow at 3 p.m. The GPAC Women's Soccer Postseason Tournament will being Nov. 5.