Soccer falls in first round of NCAA Tournament
Utah State soccer went to Provo to play No. 1 seed BYU in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at South Field and lost 2-0 on Friday night.
The Aggies recently came off a Mountain West Championship title as the No. 2, seed with the defense holding 19 of the past 22 opponents to one goal or less.
BYU entered the tournament with a 16-2-3 record, and went 7-0-3 in Big 12 play, finishing second in the league and losing to Texas in the Big 12 Tournament championship match.
Earlier in the season, USU beat BYU in Logan 1-0 to capture its highest-ranked win in program history, while holding BYU to its only scoreless result of the season.
While the defense has been the secret weapon for the Aggies all season long, it could not match up to BYU’s offense, something USU head coach Manny Martins wished they’d seen more of on USU’s side.
“We played a good game overall, and when you get to this point the most important thing is to get the result and we didn’t get it today, but I’m really proud of the way our team fought,” said Martins. “We had some really great moments then we had some moments where we fell short, and obviously against a great team, you get punished. Overall, we’re proud of how we fought and how we had the resilience to keep fighting all the way to the dying seconds of the game.”
BYU gained its advantage in the first half scoring in the tenth minute. Assists by Jamie Shepherd and Olivia Smith helped Kendell Peterson put the ball in the bottom left of the goal. Diera Walton dove for the ball but it was just out of reach.
The ball stayed close to Walton for the majority of the match. By the end of the first half, the Cougars logged 12 shots, six corner kicks and two saves by goalkeeper Lynette Hernaez.
The Aggies rounded up three shots, zero corner kicks and five saves by Walton.
The second half played out similar to the first. In the 73rd minute, BYU’s Olivia Katoa shot in the top right corner of the goal sliding off the tips of Walton’s fingers.
In a break midway through the second half, Martins told the team he didn’t care what the score was as long as the team felt proud of the way they played.
In the final two minutes of the match, the Aggies had the ball downfield taking two shots on goal but just barely missing the mark.
Walton finished with a season-high-tying seven saves while playing all 90 minutes in net in her final game as an Aggie.
“I couldn’t be more proud of how they competed and how they competed throughout the year,” Martins said. “They placed some new trails for this program this year and set some new standards and I believe the future is very bright because of the work they have done this year.”
BYU finished with 28 shots on goal compared to USU’s seven. BYU also logged 12 corner kicks and three saves. USU had one corner kick and seven saves.
BYU will now move on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“This team is something special and I think we’ve done a good job since the spring to really emphasize the kind of culture we have. I think that’s why we’ve been so successful and we’ve just been building it over the past year,” USU’s Addy Symonds-Weichers said. “It’s been a pleasure of the season and these are my best friends so it’s been so fun and successful overall since.”