Soccer ends season with sudden death overtime loss to the Vandals
The Utah State University women’s soccer team closed out its 2001 season on Sunday as it fell to the University of Idaho Vandals 2-3 in sudden death overtime at Tower Field.
The Aggies were first to put points on the board as junior Michelle Eversman posted a goal 12 minutes into the first half with an assist from senior Becky Ward.
The Vandals answered with a goal from junior Jennifer Kiebel with 13 minutes left in the first half. Kiebel posted the next goal for the Vandals 13 minutes into the second half from a penalty kick.
The Aggies’ Brigid Turner came back with a breakaway, scoring for the Aggies with 28 minutes left in regulation time.
“They thought I was going to pass, and left a big gap wide open in the middle, so I just went through there,” Turner said.
Turner’s goal tied the score 2-2 at the end of the regulation match.
After the regulation clock ran out, the game went into two 15-minute overtime halves.
Throughout the first half, several attempts were made by both teams, but the game remained tied 2-2 after the first 15
minutes.
“Their defense played fairly well, we got around them quite a bit, but we just couldn’t seem to hit the back of the net,” Utah State Head Coach Jen Kennedy Croft said.
In the second half of overtime, Idaho senior Megan Cummings knocked in the winning goal, bringing the Aggies’ season to a close with a final record of 6-11-1 overall and 3-6 in the Big West Conference.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Croft said. “It’s very tough and I think they played an overall great game.
“Idaho really stuck to it and we couldn’t put one in. I’m proud of them, they played really well and never put their heads down after goals or any of those things,” Croft said.
Junior Brigid Turner said, “It’s very, very frustrating. We knew we could play these guys and we should be winning. We just came out a little lax and thought we could walk through the game but we couldn’t. So, when we got behind it was just a reality check that we needed to actually play.”