Women’s soccer claims WAC championship
The Utah State women’s soccer team clinched a share of the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title Sunday for the third-consecutive season and for the fourth time in the last five years. The Aggies hosted and defeated Louisiana Tech 4-0 on the final day of WAC play, finishing the season with an overall record of 11-2-6 and 6-0-2 in conference play.
“To earn a share of the championship is a fantastic accomplishment, and we have some great momentum going into the conference tournament as well,” said USU head coach Heather Cairns.
Utah State will share the WAC regular-season championship with Denver, who finished the season with a 2-0 win over Seattle. Although the two teams finished atop the standings tied with 20 points, USU clinched the No. 1 seed in the upcoming WAC Tournament because they defeated La. Tech while the Pioneers managed a tie. Denver will be the No. 2 seed.
It took the Aggies some time to score the first goal of the match, and they had to endure pressure from La. Tech. The Techsters were the ones who threatened to take the lead early on, but the woodwork denied freshman Brittany Beddow in the 18th minute.
Utah State finally found the breakthrough goal in the 35th minute when sophomore Jade Tarver scored from five yards out. The goal came off a free kick by USU that was cleared by La. Tech, but Flynn regained possession of the ball and assisted Tarver for the goal.
Five minutes later, Tarver found the back of the net again and doubled the USU lead. This time, Sophomore Ambryn McCallson played a cross to Tarver who had to only push the ball toward goal.
The Aggies went into halftime with momentum and a comfortable lead. USU outshot La. Tech 9-3 in the first half, including four shots on goal.
In the 51st minute, USU freshman forward Maris Hamblin put Utah State up 3-0 after she cleaned up a shot by sophomore Lexi Morgan. Morgan had the shot blocked by the upright, but Hamblin was there to put it in the back of the net.
Sophomore Libby Lundquist put the game out of reach for La. Tech with her goal in the 76th minute to put USU up 4-0.
“This was just outstanding for us,” Tarver said. “We wanted to go into the tournament with the best record we could get, so this game was really important to us. Coming out and making the statement of four goals is just huge. It’s a morale booster for the tournament.”
The Aggies closed out the season with six consecutive wins. USU also earned its ninth shutout of the season and didn’t give up any goals at home during conference play.
“It’s really awesome to get that shutout first of all, and to score four goals on our senior game on a conference championship game and every single person put so much effort into it,” said USU goalkeeper Ashlyn Mulford.
Utah State will now turn its attention to the WAC Tournament, which will be held in Logan at Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field starting Nov. 1 and ending on Nov. 4 with the championship match.
“I’m really excited to play in front of our home crowd,” Cairns said. “We have great fans and I hope the students come out. I hope the community comes out as much as they have been supporting us during the regular season. We are really looking forward for that being our 12th man and them giving us that push. It’s going to be great to sleep in our own beds and be in our own routine.”
USU and Denver have automatically clinched a spot in the semi-finals because they are the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds respectively.
Texas State is the No. 3 seed in the tournament and will play the sixth seed Idaho on Nov. 1 at 12 p.m.
On Nov. 2 the Aggies will take on the winner of the La. Tech v Seattle game at 2:30 p.m. and Denver will play the victor between Texas State and Idaho at noon.
The championship match will be played Nov. 4 at 1 p.m. with the winner getting an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.
Tickets can be purchased at the USU ticket office as all-session passes or single-session tickets. A single-session ticket allows admission to one day’s worth of games. The all-session pass is eight dollars for students with ID cards, and single-session tickets are five dollars.
– jborba@aggiemail.usu.edu
Twitter: @JBorba15