PORTSMOUTH, Ohio -- The women's soccer program at Shawnee State honored nine players as part of Senior Night and got a 69th minute goal from Mekenzie Loper that proved to be the first of Loper's soccer career, but the Bears conceded two goals to Midway's Evie Clare as Midway was able to come back as SSU dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision Wednesday evening at Shawnee Turf in Portsmouth.

Shawnee State, who outshot Midway 17-11 in the contest and posted an 11-6 advantage in shots on goal, continued to showcase an improved offensive attack throughout the contest. The Bears posted three shots over the opening 11 minutes of the contest and closed the first half by notching three shots over the final six minutes of the stanza. The contest, however, remained scoreless through the opening half.

SSU then continued its aggressiveness offensively, notching five shots over the first 15 minutes of the second half of competition as the Bears continued to place added pressure on the Midway frontline.

Then, Mekenzie Loper struck.

On a free kick by Claire Favre, a pass by the senior captain was lofted perfectly to the fellow senior in Loper, who was able to finish inside the box to the right side after a brief scramble to give Shawnee State a 1-0 advantage in the 68th minute with her first career goal, while Favre, who had four goals for her career coming into the match, collected her first career assist.

Unfortunately, Midway was able to formulate an offensive attack late, which led to Evie Clare scoring twice off of Maggie Sauer passes in the 76th and 88th minute to create the game-tying and game-winning salvos.

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Shawnee State (3-8-3, 3-3-2 River States Conference) still holds the No. 4 position in the River States Conference Standings, and still controls its own destiny in terms of its tournament hopes. The Bears will get into the RSC Tournament with a victory over Indiana-Kokomo in the Bears' final regular season matchup Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. at Shawnee Turf. A loss puts the bid up for grabs as only Oakland City, Rio Grande and Indiana-East have clinched tournament positions within the RSC -- with six teams, including SSU, West Virginia Tech, Brescia, Midway, Indiana-Kokomo, and Saint Mary-of-the-Woods -- fighting for the remaining three positions left in the conference tournament.

In all, a total of nine individuals were honored Thursday -- including Julye Derenemesnil, Carlota Ipina Taylor, Kya Robinson, Claire Favre and Mekenzie Loper, who all participated in Senior Night festivities for the first time. Haynna Addy, Madison Culp, Alex Hurn and Bianca Robinson, who were each honored in previous seasons during Senior Night, were also recognized for their contributions to the program.

More on each of these nine players above will be posted in this story.