Less than 24 hours after seeing his Wright State women’s soccer team come inches away from playing in the NCAA tournament, coach Pat Ferguson was still a long way from getting over it.

“I just texted a friend and said I set a new world record for continuous crying, 18 hours long,” Ferguson said Monday.

Yet Ferguson was proud of the Raiders. They lost 1-0 in double overtime to Milwaukee on Sunday in the Horizon League championship game, finishing 9-5-6 this season.

“We played hard,” Ferguson said. “We started five freshmen and two sophomores, so we have a lot of returning players. That’s a young team to do so well in the conference final. One unfortunate bounce changed the game.”

Milwaukee’s Krissy Dorre knocked in a rebound in the 103rd minute, avenging a double-overtime 1-0 loss to the Raiders on Sept. 22.

“Honestly, both teams played well,” Ferguson said. “Both teams could have won it in regulation. Our keeper made a big save in the first half. Their keeper made a save, and it ended up bouncing off the post. Literally, we were four or five inches from going to the NCAA tournament.”

The Raiders beat Youngstown State 1-0 in the first round and Detroit 1-0 in the semifinals. They lost to both in the regular season.

“To go on the road for both those games and win them, that made me proud,” Ferguson said. “Youngstown State is a real difficult place to play because their field is so narrow. The style they play is conducive to them playing on their field. Detroit is a good team with special players, and we kind of stole one against them, but the ability of the kids to stay in the game was impressive.”

Senior Emilie Fillion scored both goals in the tournament for Wright State. She and defender Lauren Patterson will be the two biggest losses. They were the only senior starters in the last seven games.

Fillion, Liz Soto and Brooke McCurdy made the all-tournament team.

Fillion tied Ini Umotong, a freshman from England, for the season lead with seven goals.

“Having Ini as one of the leading scorers and having her as newcomer of the year in the conference, that bodes well,” Ferguson said. “There’s a learning curve for any freshman, and there’s really a learning curve for international players. A soccer season overseas can be six to eight months long. The season here is three months. Probably in the NCAA, it’s the shortest season there is. There’s pressure. There’s no respite. They have to bring it every game.”

Playing three extra games in the Horizon League tournament will help the younger players.

“There’s no doubt about it,” Ferguson said. “You can’t replicate the atmosphere and the expectations and the knowledge that if you screw up, that’s the end of the season. You can’t replicate that in training.”

Fall updates: The volleyball team is 2-28 going into the final two matches of the regular season this weekend. They’ve lost 13 in a row.

The men’s soccer team lost seven of its last eight games and finished 4-13-1 and 2-14-1 in the Horizon League. Brett Elder led the team with nine goals, and Derek Zuniga led with five assists.