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Women’s soccer: Say it ain’t so

By Seth R. Hawkins

It was a picture-perfect finish to a challenging WAC Soccer Tournament: a long-range double overtime goal to claim the title. Unfortunately for the Aggies, it was Fresno State that nailed the shot to win 2-1 Sunday in Reno, Nevada.

The win sends the second-seeded Fresno State Bulldogs (11-8-2, 5-1-1) to the NCAA Women’s Soccer Championship, where they will represent the WAC. The Bulldog’s victory also snaps an eight-game conference win streak by the Aggies, putting a halt to the record-setting USU season and its confident run for the coveted, yet still elusive, WAC title.

“When you come to the conference championship match, you want the one and two to battle out for the top prize,” USU head coach Heather Cairns said. “We had our opportunities, they certainly had their opportunities. Fresno State is going to represent our conference well in NCAA. We wish it was us, but we didn’t make it happen today – they did.”

Going into the tournament, Cairns said her team wasn’t scared, they were confident and hungry. Having beat Fresno State, 1-0, in conference play earlier in the season, the Aggies had plenty of reason to be confident. But Fresno State was by far the toughest opponent USU could face in the finals, and they showed it.

Cairns said the match was even throughout most of the game, though Utah State owned a clear shooting advantage, outshooting the Bulldogs 18-9, including eight shots from senior forward Candice Clark.

The high-power offense the Aggies have become known for struck early, in the 20th minute, when Clark fed the ball to sophomore forward Lauren Hansen, who snuck through defenders and sunk the ball in the back of the net, putting USU up 1-0.

Unlike the previous match between the two teams, Fresno State fired back two minutes later with a close-range shot in the box by Ali Sill to even things up.

For the next 84 minutes, going into double overtime, neither team could land a shot, though Cairns said the Aggies owned the definite edge in close calls.

But on their first shot in either overtime, Cairns said Fresno State’s Elora Martinez hit a heartbreaking “Katie Larkin-type” shot from 30 yards out that went into the top left corner of the net, ending the Aggies’ amazing season.

“The loss still stings,” Cairns said. “I told the girls, look, nothing can take away the pain, but give it some time and you’ll be proud you’ll be in the record books. They’ve accomplished things no other USU soccer team has. We just really believed we could win.”

The defeat marked the final game in Aggie uniform for seniors Ali Griffin, Lisa Willardson, Alyssa Lowry, Jessie Malaska, Kiersten Nilsson and Clark, seniors whom Cairns said the team will greatly miss, especially their leadership.

Cairns said Lowry, a team captain, was injured late in the semi-final match against Boise State and had to be carted off the field in an ambulance. But, determined to lead her team, Cairns said Lowry returned Sunday to face the Bulldogs.

While Cairns said there is much for this team to be proud of, the loss is painful and will take awhile for her players to realize what they accomplished this season with their 13-7-1 record.

“The great thing about this team was they were never satisfied,” Cairns said. “When we clinched conference, we weren’t satisfied, we wanted to clinch the tournament. Every step of success that we’ve had, we’ve still strived to exceed that. That’s what I think made this team pretty special … It was a heck of a season.”

-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu