Aggies fall short in heartbreaking NCAA tournament first round loss
The Utah State University Women’s Soccer team faced off with Brigham Young University in Provo on Nov. 14 for the first round of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament. The Aggies fell short, losing in a penalty shootout 6-7 after the match was tied 1-1 after 110 minutes of play. Friday’s loss marked the second straight season the Aggies saw their season end by penalty kicks in the first round of the NCAA tournament, suffering the same fate against Washington a season ago.
To open the game, the Aggies dominated on offense, holding possession nearly the entirety of the opening 12 minutes. Despite their hot start, the Aggies were unable to score during this time.
As the Aggies began to cool off, BYU started to come alive offensively. At 18:27, the Cougars scored their only goal of regulation. The remainder of the half was a stalemate with neither team gaining much momentum. Head coach Manny Martins addressed how he saw the momentum shift in the first half.
“BYU is an excellent team. When you have two great teams on the field, there’s going to be momentum shifts. I think there was a part of it that was an attitude piece from us,” Martins said. “Sometimes the game gets away from you in moments. It may affect a little bit of confidence, but I thought we made a really good adjustment with that in the second half, which allowed us to get back into the game.”
The Aggies had an explosive start to the second half. At 52 minutes, sophomore forward Mia Mullenmeister scored to tie the game at 1-1 with an assist from senior forward Tess Werts. Martins attributed the impressive start to the team’s mentality entering the half.
“A big part of it was the fact that we have a fairly young team — a lot of young players playing a lot. My focus was on trying to inspire them to own the moment. Sometimes, moments like this, we as humans allow them to be bigger than they need to be,” Martins said. “I encouraged them to enjoy the moment. We had minimal tactical adjustments, but I thought it worked out for us.”
The rest of the half was again a defensive showdown between each team with neither one able to make a significant blow to the other. The closing minutes of the half featured a tough defensive stand by the Aggies to force overtime, with BYU taking four shots on goal in the final four minutes.
The defensive performance was highlighted by senior goalie Taylor Rath’s impressive performance. Rath had five saves in the second half, helping the Aggies force overtime with the Cougars.
“Taylor’s a future pro for many reasons, not just a performance on the field, but how she handles herself as well,” Martins said. “She’s always ready when we call upon her. But Taylor’s a pro, and I didn’t expect anything less from her tonight.”
The two 10-minute overtimes were once again a physical showdown, with neither team able to gain the edge on the other. Despite the lack of scoring, overtime was very physical as both teams showed their grit, with players on each team receiving the only yellow cards issued during the game.
Following overtime, the game went to a penalty shootout. The shootout took 11 attempts to determine a winner. The Cougars ended up victorious 7-6, knocking the Aggies out of the tournament.
Despite the game not ending how the Aggies had hoped, the team was full of optimism, looking towards the future and the season next year.
“Right now, it’s about recovery. This was, like, a tough season on our bodies, but we’re a really young team, and we got the experience we needed this year,” said sophomore defender Kaeda Wilson. “I’m really excited for the next couple of years because these freshmen are so good. The sophomores are great, and then we have a great incoming class that we’re really excited about. So, it’s going to be an awesome season next year.”