Soccer falls to Auburn at NCAA Tournament
The Utah State women’s soccer team saw its historic season come to an end on Saturday, falling 2-1 to Auburn in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
“The girls are so proud of themselves,” head coach Heather Cairns said. “They have really good reason to be proud of themselves. It’s been an amazing season, and they’ve had an amazing showing. We came out, played strong and played quality soccer.”
The Aggies — playing in their first-ever NCAA Tournament — took awhile to find their feet, but once they did, they gave the Tigers all they could handle. Unfortunately for USU, Auburn capitalized on an early chance and put the Aggies in a tough spot.
In the 17th minute, senior midfielder Katy Frierson took a ball at the top of the circle and put a difficult strike past goalkeeper Molli Merrill into the right side of the net.
The Tigers’ speed presented a challenge for the Aggies, as Auburn created opportunities beating USU to loose balls and relying on impressive ball handling and precision passing, to move the ball into the attacking half.
Auburn took 18 shots during the match, while Utah State finished with two.
Early in the second half Auburn began to pull away. In the 58th minute, freshman forward Tori Ball gave the Tigers a two-goal advantage after the Aggie defense appeared to have caught Ball offsides.
No flag went up, no whistle sounded, and Ball put the goal away into the top-right corner of the net while the Aggies looked to the officials.
Six minutes later the Aggies cut the deficit in half.
Pemberton and fellow sophomores Jennifer Flynn and Mari Miyashiro teamed up to out-hustle the Tigers and put one in the net.
“Jen made an awesome run on that ball,” Cairns said. “I thought it might have been going out of bounds, but she kept it in and kicked it across. Mari Miyashiro got a couple touches on it, and Kendra put it away with some authority.”
The goal gave the Aggies some new life, and the team had several chances to equalize down the stretch. As each chance came up short, Utah State didn’t quit, and perhaps the best chances came in the final minute of the game.
After Auburn’s freshman forward Tatiana Coleman was given a yellow card in the 90th minute, Utah State was awarded a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box.
Unfortunately for USU, the free kick resulted in the ball being headed out of play. The final whistle blew, and Auburn escaped with the win.
“I was really proud of the girls,” Cairns said. “We said all along that we were going to come here to win it. We weren’t going to come in here overwhelmed. We have played plenty of teams this season that have the same kind of caliber as Auburn Unfortunately, we gave up that goal.
“Katy Frierson made an awesome play. I thought we settled in very well. We had a great push there at the end and made it 2-1. We just came up short today. I couldn’t be prouder of our girls.”
This season’s squad and its five seniors have set countless records and, according to Cairns, had “the best season in Utah State history.”
Merrill finished the season in the top 20 in the nation, in goals against average. Senior Shantel Flanary set the all-time Utah State scoring record. The team had its first NCAA appearance and came up just short of pulling off the victory.
“What a special season,” Cairns said. “What a special team. What a special group of players. We’re so proud of what we’ve accomplished. We’re going to enjoy this. We’re going to cherish this.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu