Soccer drops pair of in-state battles to Utes, Wildcats
It was a rough weekend against in-state opponents for the Utah State women’s soccer team. The Aggies dropped a pair of matches to Utah and Weber State to fall to 4-3-2 on the season.
Weber State 1 Utah State 0
The women’s soccer team lost an emotional game Sunday in Logan against Weber State. It was the first time this season the Aggies have lost consecutive games.
After a scoreless first half, Weber State jumped to the lead a minute and fifteen seconds into the second half.
The Wildcats would hold that lead despite constant pressure by the Aggies.
“We were in the attacking third a lot, but we didn’t generate a lot of opportunities,” said USU head coach Heather Cairns. “We didn’t do much with our possession and our opportunities once we got there.”
The Aggies failed to have a shot on goal in the game, but had opportunities down the stretch. Lexie Henrie fired a shot from 25 yards out that hit the post with under a minute left in the game and the ensuing corner kick resulted in a shot that went over the post as time expired.
The Aggies are in their toughest stretch in two seasons, going 0-3-1 in their last four games after starting out the season undefeated. They haven’t scored a goal in 324 minutes of play.
“We just need to train harder and push each other harder,” said senior forward Jessica Hoskin-Killpack. “We are getting the opportunities, but we just need to get the extra 10 percent to go over the line.”
The Aggies look to move forward from this tough stretch as they begin Mountain West play this week.
“We really turn the page here,” said Cairns. “There are 11 teams in our conference and eight qualify for the conference tournament. We have to set our goals to qualify for the conference tournament.”
USU begins Mountain West play with a pair of games in Nevada this week, Friday against the University of Nevada, Reno and Sunday against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. This is the first full weekend on the road for the Aggies.
“We’ve had some ups and downs in the non-conference portion,” Cairns said. “Now we need to learn from it and go attack conference.”
Utah 3 Utah State 0
The women’s soccer team lost to the University of Utah 3-0 Friday night in Salt Lake City.
The game was scoreless through 59 minutes before Utah finally scored twice in the span of three minutes. The Utes scored again off a penalty kick in the 72nd minute.
Before the Utes broke out in the second half, the Aggies had a 169-minute shutout streak. The defense frustrated the Utes for much of the game.
“They did a good job shutting things down,” said Utah sophomore Megan Trabert. “Once we figured out how to play to what they were giving us, we started scoring.”
The loss was the first on the road for the Aggies and only their second of the season. USU beat Utah in overtime last season, but couldn’t pull out a victory in this year’s matchup of the rivalry.
“It was intense, and it was competitive,” Trabert said. “Both teams worked really hard. It was a good game.”
– dahdahjm@gmail.com
Twitter: @Dahdahjeff