KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- In the 2021 women's soccer season, there was a precursor of things to come for Mira Pierre-Webster at Western Michigan University when, in her first career start, the defender was part of a 4-0 shutout victory.

Now, she's a junior and part of the stingiest defense in the Mid-American Conference which is preparing for the league tournament semifinals Thursday at the WMU Soccer Complex. The first semifinal is No. 2 seed Bowling Green vs. No. 6 Ohio University at 11 a.m. The No. 1 seed Broncos play No. 4 Kent State at 2 p.m. The championship game is Sunday at 1 p.m. with the winner receiving the league's automatic bid into the NCAA tournament.

To cap off an outstanding regular season, Pierre-Webster was named the MAC's Defensive Player of the Year. Junior Lauren Boafo was named the Goaltender of the Year and WMU's Lewis Robinson was named Coach of the Year.

''Honestly, when coach told me I won, I didn't expect it because all season, no one on our back line got defensive player of the week,'' Pierre-Webster said. ''For Lauren and me to be recognized reflects on our entire back line.''

That entire team was a voracious defensive squad. The Broncos allowed only six goals in 11 league games with six shutouts, finishing with an 8-0-3 league mark and a 12-3-3 overall record. 

''Mira has been a big part of our team and back line (along with starters Brielle Gomez, Olivia Brunink and Abby Baldridge), and as the old cliché says, defense wins championships,'' Robinson said. ''We like to think of ourselves as an offensive team and we like to attack a lot, but if we give up two or three goals a game, we're never going to win championships.

''We have given up limited opportunities. This league is so tough and tight, that we can't open up and give away scoring chances and expect to win the league.''

One of the regular season shutouts was a 2-0 win over Kent State. Heidi Thomasma and Jenna Blackburn had the goals with Blackburn and Pierre-Webster getting the assists. That was Pierre-Webster's lone assist this season, but she stopped a lot of opponents from getting goals and assists. Kent had eight shots, three of them on goal, but didn't have any shots in the second half.

''At the start of the season, we talked about we want clean sheets across the board,'' Pierre-Webster said. ''That is a lofty goal, but we allowed six goals in the MAC, so I would say it worked out.

''We started the non-conference season with two shutouts and that gave us a lot of confidence.''

The game against Kent State was near the end of the season when the regular season championship hadn't been close to being decided.

''That game meant a lot in the standings, and we said we weren't going to let them get behind us because they are dangerous,'' Pierre-Webster said.

Added Robinson: ''The thing about our season was the last games were all pressure games. We had a bunch of really tight games and high-level games down the stretch which prepared us for where we are now.''

After a tie with Ohio University, WMU would string together five straight wins, beating Miami, 1-0; Eastern Michigan, 3-0; Kent, 2-0; Buffalo, 4-1; and Toledo, 3-1. It was the win over Toledo which finally clinched the MAC title. Western Michigan is now unbeaten in its last 11 games.

''We won it beating Toledo, but the Kent game was win or not win the league, Buffalo was a big game in we had to win to control our own destiny then we were down 1-0,'' Robinson said. ''The defense has to be the most important thing and that's not just our back four, it's our front line and midfielders and everyone has bought into that side of the game.''

Pierre-Webster has been a defender for many years. She was a midfielder in middle school, then she found that stopping people was the thing she was meant to do. When she was looking at which university to attend, she had a list of must-haves.

''I didn't want a big school or a small school, but I wanted it to be medium,'' Pierre-Webster, who came from Whitby, Ontario which is just outside Toronto, said. ''I wanted a team which was closely knight and Western Michigan was that school, because when the coaches changed (Robinson came to WMU in June of 2022), everyone stayed.

''And I wanted the school to have a football team because I'm from Canada and I had never seen American football before.''

Now, she's on a soccer team which has a chance to add a tournament championship to its regular season championship.