Soccer takes WAC
Back-to-back, regular season Western Athletic Conference Champions.
This is the title the Utah State women’s soccer team earned after a pair of weekend home matches against San Jose State University and Fresno State University.
After finishing the regular season as co-champions with the Spartans last year, the Aggies made sure there was no repeat, disposing of SJSU in a dominant 3-0 win Friday and holding Fresno State long enough to earn a 0-0 tie.
“It’s amazing,” head coach Heather Cairns said. “Anytime you win a championship it’s not easy. It’s a long road — there’s a lot of games. This team is all about seizing those opportunities.”
The championship is USU’s third regular season title in four years.
Junior defender Natalie Norris, senior forward Shantel Flanary and freshman forward Jade Tarver each netted goals for the Aggies in a match that saw Utah State controlling the ball from start to finish against San Jose State.
The Aggies’ offense was relentless against Spartan goalkeeper Meghan Maiwald, blasting 27 shots for the day — 14 of those on goal.
It didn’t take long for the Aggies to strike.
Just four minutes into the match, Norris found the back of the net off of a corner kick from Kendra Pemberton. It was Norris’s fourth goal of the season, and it was just the beginning of a busy afternoon for Maiwald, who recorded eight saves on the day.
Flanary came into the match needing three points to tie the Utah State scoring record set by Lauren Hansen. Flanary’s goal four minutes into the second half left her just one point shy, at 83.
Flanary put on a dribbling exhibition, carving up the Spartan defense before rocketing her 10th goal of the season past Maiwald, into the bottom-right corner of the net.
Tarver came in off the bench midway through the first half and immediately made her presence felt. On her first touch, Tarver dribbled through a pair of SJSU defenders and rifled a shot on goal. Maiwald got a touch on the shot and pushed the ball wide of the net.
Tarver didn’t waste her second chance.
In the 83rd minute Tarver capitalized, taking a ball from a Spartan defender in the attacking half, dribbled across the top of the six-yard box and put a well-placed shot into the bottom-right corner of the net. It was Tarver’s first goal of her collegiate career.
“It was amazing. I’ve been wanting it for so long,” Tarver said. “It’s great to finally put it away.”
The win set up the showdown with Fresno State Sunday, in a winner-take-all match.
Trailing Utah State by two points in the WAC standings, the Bulldogs needed a win to capture the regular season title. Conversely, a win or a tie would seal the deal for USU.
The Bulldogs seemed to come out playing with urgency, determined to come away on top.
Senior goalkeeper Molli Merrill would have none of it.
Merrill, who holds the best goals-against percentage in the WAC, came up with five saves for the Aggies, including a huge save in the final 20 seconds of overtime.
Fresno State’s senior midfielder Molli Nizzoli suddenly found herself in the middle of the 18-yard box with the ball and plenty of space.
Nizzoli torpedoed a shot at the bottom-left corner of the goal, and it appeared to be on it’s way into the net as the Bulldog bench started celebrating.
Merrill made a near-impossible save to thwart Fresno State’s last-gasp attempt at the win, and the Aggies were able to come away with the tie, and the regular season title.
Merrill was bombarded by the Bulldog’s offense consistently, especially in the waning moments of regulation and overtime. Fresno State was unable to capitalize on two corner kicks in the final 30 seconds of regulation, and while the Aggies had their chances in overtime, the Bulldogs weren’t letting up.
Cairns spoke highly of her senior goalkeeper’s effort.
“Every save Molli made today was a game-changing save,” Cairns, who is now in her eighth season as head coach, said. “She was huge in the game today. I think we owe a lot of our success to her.”
Merrill and fellow seniors Chandra Salmon-Christensen, Shantel Flanary, Summer Tillotson and Marissa Sanchez have left a legacy for future Aggies to follow. Salmon-Christensen said that was a goal of she and her fellow players had coming into the program.
“I think we came in with the attitude that we wanted to have an impact — we wanted to leave our mark on the program,” Salmon-Christensen said. “We wanted to make a good program great. I think we’ve left our mark, and it feels really good.”
With the regular season finished, the Aggies now prepare for the WAC Tournament in Reno, Nevada, Nov. 4-6, where they will be the No. 1 seed.
“I think it gives us a little bit of a target on our backs going into the WAC tournament,” Salmon-Christensen said, “which feels really nice. Our team is the type of team that loves a challenge. We love rising to a challenge, we love the opportunity going in as regular season champions.”
– curtis.lundstrom@aggiemail.usu.edu