The Heartland women's soccer squad fought until the very end at the NJCAA DII Nationals, as the Hawks defeated Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) Essex on Monday in pool-play before falling to Jones College in a closely-contested pool-play match on Wednesday at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Ariz.
 
The No. 3-seeded Hawks opened up pool-play against No. 10-seeded CCBC Essex with a 2-0 victory over the Knights on Monday. After Heartland struggled to capitalize on multiple opportunities in the first 45 minutes of play, sophomore Lina Lopez finally connected for the Hawks with a goal in the 47^th minute on an assist by Elsa Jove and Zara Dominguez. Dominguez would then find the net in the 77^th minute, with Lopez and Jove chipping in on the assist to push Heartland's advantage to 2-0.
 
Heartland finished the match with 19 shots, 7 of which were on goal. Goalkeeper Sofia Mosquera chipped in 4 saves on 4 shots on goal in the tournament-opening victory for the Hawks.
 
After a day off, the Hawks returned to the Kino Sports Complex to face-off with No. 6-seeded Jones County in a match that would ultimately determine the pool winner with a chance to advance to Friday's semifinals. Jones County jumped out in front early with a goal in the 11^th minute, and followed that with a score in the 34^th minute as the Hawks faced a 2-0 halftime deficit. It was not until the 88^th minute that Lopez finally connected for the Hawks on a penalty kick to make it 2-1. Despite strenuous efforts to knot-up the score before the end of regulation, the Bobcats would ultimately prevail.
 
The defending National-champion Hawks ended their season with a 12-3-1 record that included wins over three ranked opponents. Heartland was ranked as the No. 1 team for multiple weeks in the NJCAA DII polls, and was also the Region-24 champions before falling to SWIC in the District tournament. The Hawks rattled off 10 straight victories before their loss to SWIC.