By Loren Miller, USU Eastern Sports Information:
PRICE – The 2018 Utah State Eastern women’s soccer season came to end on Friday at the Region XVIII Tournament in Herriman.
The Eagles lost to the Snow College Badgers 3-0 in the tournament semifinals at Zion’s Bank Stadium.
In the first half it was all Snow College as they would out shoot the Eagles 10-1.
“We struggled to put the ball in the back of the net. We need to make the most of the few opportunities we get, but we weren’t able to connect in this game,” said USU Eastern’s Morgan Hall.
Snow was able to connect in the 20′ minute when Kauro Hayashi got a goal off the left pole past USU Eastern keeper Mya Massey.
The Eagles would head to halftime trailing 1-0 after not letting the Badgers get another goal in the first half.
In the second half the Massey would hold off the Badgers with seven saves until the 83′ minute when Sophie Stewart found the back of the net.
Less then four minutes later the Badgers would score again with off the foot of Mei Seutsugu.
“We didn’t have a lot of opportunities but they beat us with three fantastic goals,” said USU Eastern Head Coach Ammon Bennett.
The loss concludes an up and down season for the Eagles according to Bennett.
“We had a lot of talent, it is disappointing to not move on with this group. This is a group that plays really hard and great kids to coach,” said Bennett.
For Hall, it concludes her career at USU Eastern, one that she will never forget especially this season.
“It’s weird that it’s over. We’ve spent everyday for the past 3 months together, so i’m sad to see it come to an end. I am so proud of this team and how far we’ve come. We lost most our games by one goal: we were able to stick with the top teams, and I feel like we had the potential to beat any team this season. We also had so much team chemistry this year which gave us the opportunity to gain lifelong friendships. The overall attitude of this team was incredible, and I’m going to miss playing with them by my side,” said Hall.
The Eagles finish the 2018 season with a record of 6-8-1 with five of their losses decided by one goal.
They will begin Spring training and scrimmages in January before coming back next August for practices that will lead up to the 2019 season.