CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA --- The final match of the 2015 campaign for the Howard women's soccer team will go down as a loss. In the grand scheme of things, however, this contest - and this season as a whole - serves as a major victory for the program.

The Bison ended their season Friday evening with a 7-1 loss in the NCAA Division I Women's Soccer Tournament to No. 1 seed and 2014 National runner-up Virginia. 

After falling behind 2-0 to the Cavaliers (17-1-2) by halftime, the Bison were able to cut their deficit in half early in the second half. After sophomore forward Kela Gray barely missed a score from just inside the box, fellow sophomore Whitney White found herself in the right place at the right time to put Gray's miss into the back of the net.

As exciting as this turn of events was for the underdog Bison, UVA would respond how a championship-level opponent knows how to. The Cavaliers extended their lead back to two less than 30 seconds later and proceeded to score four more goals in the period.

For Howard (13-8-2), the defeat in its first-ever NCAA Tournament closes the book on the best season in Howard Women's Soccer history, a season in which the Bison:

-    Tied 2014's school record for wins in a season (13);
-    Set a new record for winning percentage (.609);
-    Became the only Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) school to ever win back-to-back conference titles;
-    Posted the nation's largest single-game scoring output (17 goals vs Hampton)
-    Finished in the top five in the NCAA in scoring offense, total goals, points/game, and total points;
-    Had a Top 10 nationally ranked scorer (Kela Gray, 17);
-    Placed five players on All-SWAC teams (1st: Gray, Kendall Hamilton; 2nd: Rasheeda Ansari, Sara Vaughan, Mackenzie Diotte);
-    Saw five player earn SWAC All=Tournament teams (Hamilton, Zakiya Muhammad, Vaughan, Diotte and Ruddy / MVP);
-    Had the program featured twice on espnW;
-    And won four non-conference games, including defeating District foe American University for the first time ever.

On the surface, the result of Friday's match wasn't what Howard would have wanted, but the foundation for futuplccess has been firmly laid.