Colorado College did what it had to do to lock up the top seed for the inaugural Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.
In a game that many thought would be an offensive shootout, the Tigers relied on their defense to record a 9-5 victory over Birmingham-Southern College on Sunday afternoon at Washburn Field.
The Panthers, who had averaged 17.38 goals per game during their first 11 games, became the seventh consecutive opponent that Colorado College held to five goals or less.
Zach Steedman steered aside 10 BSC shots to finish in double figures for the third time this season. He was the beneficiary of another stellar performance by senior defender Zach Hoisington, who held the SCAC's leading scorer, Matt Ivie, to just one goal on five shots.
Zach Pierce tied his career high with five caused turnovers and scored his first goal of the season and the second of his career. That marker, just 10 seconds after Jack Kreitler found the net, gave Colorado College a 4-0 lead with 3:19 remaining in the first period.
CC struck quickly when Will Harris scored 10 seconds after the opening faceoff and took a two-goal lead when Charles Curtis sent a laser from the left perimeter past Andrew Huffman with just 4:06 expired.
Jacob McPherson put Birmingham-Southern on the board with 44 seconds remaining in the first period, but the Tigers added tallies by Kreitler and Steve Rijo to build a 6-1 lead with 8:29 to play in the first half.
After D.J. Ward and Ivie cut CC's advantage to 6-3 just over five minutes later, Carson Christman scored with 55 seconds to expand the lead to four goals after 30 minutes.
Both teams scored only twice in the second half. McPherson and Ward found the net for the Panthers, while Moses Taylor and James Mauk struck for Colorado College.
The Tigers tied their season low with only nine goals, thanks in part to a season-high 28 turnovers of which 18 were unforced. CC converted on just one of four man-up opportunities, while the Panthers went 0-for-5.
Colorado College finished with a 39-23 advantage in shots and a 23-18 edge in ground balls.
Huffman made 12 saves and had four ground balls for BSC. Ben Schaefer caused three turnovers and grabbed a pair of ground balls for the Panthers, who slipped to 6-6 overall and 4-1 in conference play.
The Tigers, who improved to 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the SCAC, play host to Hendrix College on Friday night.
