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Arkansas' magical soccer season came to a disappointing end Sunday afternoon.
After capturing the regular-season SEC title, the Razorbacks reached the SEC Tournament Final for a fifth straight time, but fell to Vanderbilt 3-1 in Orange Beach, Ala.
Despite being the No. 1 overall seed and a top-10 team, Arkansas allowed three unanswered goals to the seventh-seeded Commodores after scoring a quick goal of its own in the final.
It is just the second time the Razorbacks have lost this season. Their lone regular-season loss was to South Carolina en route to a 7-1 record.
Vanderbilt captured the SEC's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the victory. However, that event has been postponed until the spring because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Arkansas, which is a strong candidate for an at-large bid to the national tournament, will likely play a spring season.
Unfortunately, losing in SEC Tournament championship games/matches is nothing new for Arkansas since joining the conference in the early 1990s. The Razorbacks have won just four times in 33 appearances across multiple sports.
The track and field and cross country programs for the men and women have combined to win numerous SEC titles, but the format is such that they aren't playing in a true championship game or match against one other team.
Similarly, the men's golf team's 1995 title came in stroke play. It wasn't until a few years ago that the golf championship was decided through match play, which pits two teams against each other in a final match. Arkansas has actually won that title in men's and women's golf.
As you can see in the chart below, Arkansas' only other wins were in volleyball (1997) and men's basketball (2000). Here is the individual breakdown by sport...
~Volleyball: 1-7
~Men's basketball: 1-6
~Soccer: 0-7
~Baseball: 0-4
~Football: 0-3
~Men's golf: 1-0
~Women's golf: 1-0
~Women's basketball: 0-1
~Softball: 0-1
