Aggie soccer claims regular season WAC title
In one day, the Utah State women’s soccer team set four school records and became only the third Aggie team to win a regular-season Western Athletic Conference title.
Topping San Jose State, 3-2, Sunday afternoon at San Jose, the Aggies won their first-ever regular season title, earned the most regular season wins by any USU soccer team (11-7-1) and won more conference games than ever before with six, which is also the longest winning streak for the team.
“We’re just so proud to bring the championship home to Utah State,” said USU head coach Heather Cairns. “To be able to do it with this group of girls, with this group of seniors, it’s just so exciting. We’re really proud of ourselves and proud to represent the university this way.”
And they’re still not done. The Aggies still must face Louisiana Tech on Friday, a team they obliterated 10-1 last season. Though the Lady Techsters are an improved squad, win or lose, the Aggies will still be No. 1.
Cairns said she knows that places a big target on her team heading into the conference tournament, but she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We all are really buying into the big prize,” Cairns said. “Yeah, we did it, we did something great. We made history. Let’s keep making history. It’s not finished.”
San Jose jitters
Going into this weekend, Cairns said this was likely one of the toughest back-to-back road games of the season. If nothing else, it certainly had the most riding on the line. With Fresno State on the Aggies’ heels, a loss or a couple of ties could have created a tightly contested regular season championship.
After beating Hawaii Friday, the Aggies had to face a tough San Jose State squad. Cairns said her team was nervous going into the game and those nerves showed a bit in the first half, where the Aggies struggled to contain the Spartans, whom Cairns said seemed to have taken a page right out of Nevada’s book on how to play USU.
Playing a very direct and fast style of soccer, SJSU got on the board early off a give-and-go goal to the top right corner of the net.
“It was a tough game for us,” Cairns said. “To San Jose’s credit, they played well in the first half. We weren’t able to respond to battle them in the air well enough. They were the better team in the first half.”
It took the Aggies until the 40th minute to even things up, when freshman midfielder Chandra Salmon scored her first collegiate goal off a header from a Lindsey Smart free kick.
The goal provided some momentum and four minutes later the Aggies scored again, this time off a cross from senior forward Candice Clark to sophomore Heather Pond, who headed the ball in.
Unfortunately for the Aggies, 27 seconds later, SJSU scored off a corner kick to even things up at the half.
The second half was more of a defensive struggle but Clark slipped in her third goal in two days – off a header no less – to score the game-winning goal.
“She did kind of take it to an extra level this weekend,” Cairns said of Clark. “She showed a lot of senior leadership.”
The Wahine killer
Playing Hawaii at Hawaii is a tough challenge for any team, but the Aggies had a special weapon going in. Cairns said Clark is a “Wahine killer.”
“If there’s one team that Candice plays really well against, it’s Hawaii,” she said.
In a game that was largely physical like Boise State and low-scoring like Fresno State, both teams spent most of the game at midfield, fighting for possession. Cairns said this type of play leads to a brutal, physical game, which resulted in 43 fouls and three yellow cards.
Only 17 shots were fired the entire match, with the Rainbow Wahine owning a 10-7 advantage, but the Aggies made the most of their opportunities, Cairns said.
Clark shot twice and buried twice.
Five minutes into the match, freshman defender Summer Tillotson cleared the ball between two center backs and the Hawaii goalkeeper. Cairns said Clark “hunted that ball” and pounded it past the keeper.
Early in the second half, Hawaii responded with a goal from none other than their star senior forward Taryn Fukuroku, who has five goals and five assists on the season.
Clark put the nail in the Rainbow Wahine’s coffin when she scored off a feed from fellow forwards Lauren Hansen and Shantel Flanary with six minutes left in the game.
The 2-1 win marks USU’s fourth straight regular-season victory against the WAC soccer powerhouse.
-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu