MATTHEWS, N.C. – In the school's first-ever appearance in the Big South Tournament Semifinals, the fifth-seed Presbyterian College women's soccer team drew the short end of the stick in a stunning back-and-forth sequence against number one seed USC Upstate, dropping a 2-1 heartbreaker on Thursday evening.
It looked as if the Blue Hose would post back-to-back 90-minute ties after prevailing past fourth-seed Longwood in a PK shootout in the tournament's opening round, with the tally at 0-0 nearing the end of regulation.
Instead, PC and the Spartans traded three haymakers in quick succession.
Junior forward
Sloan Spees seemingly sent the match to overtime at 84:53 on a free kick, only for Upstate to answer right back with three minutes and 19 seconds on the clock.
Altogether, the Semifinal match saw three goals in fewer than six minutes, turning what was a defensive slugfest into a firework show in the eleventh hour.
While PC and head coach
Matt Smith were unable to topple the Big South's regular season champion, they can still hang their heads very high following a semester of drastic improvement and an optimistic view of the future.
FINAL SCORE - #1 USC Upstate, 2 - #5 Presbyterian, 1
RECORDS – Presbyterian (7-6-5) – USC Upstate (8-4-4)
LOCATION – Matthews SportsPlex (Matthews, N.C.)
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Scotsmen held their own against the top seed with a second straight scoreless tally in the postseason up until the final moments.
- The two close rivals added up for seven shots in the first period, as senior keeper
Kelly Hall grabbed three of her five saves in the opening half.
- Both defenses kept rejecting the other side as fatigue started to become a factor, further strengthening the possibility of OT for what would've been the second time in a row.
- The first 45 minutes on Thursday took an opposite turn compared to PC's regular season meeting against Upstate, where the halftime margin was 2-1 Spartans (ultimately finishing at a two-all stalemate).
85th MINUTE STUNNER
- Presbyterian's mentality stayed strong despite an Upstate silencer in the 81
st minute that likely could've been the night's only score.
- Coach Smith's gang capitalized on a golden opportunity with less than five minutes to go, sending Spees and Lina-Marie Müller to a close-range free kick after a USC Upstate violation.
- Müller served as the decoy and threw Upstate goalie Meghan Groah off balance, allowing Spees to do the rest and curve a perfect ball over three defenders to suddenly tie things up at one apiece.
- The craziness wasn't finished, however, as the Spartans then booted the game-winner with just over three minutes to go.
A SEASON TO REMEMBER
- Although the Blue Hose couldn't quite complete the goal of reaching their first-ever Big South Championship game, they can still reflect positively on the heels of a season where they earned a four-win improvement from the year prior.
- Five different PC players were selected for all-conference honors, the most that the program has seen since making the jump to the Division I level in 2007.
- Last weekend, coach Smith's crew broke a five-year postseason drought and atoned for past close tournament losses to take out Longwood in PK's.
- In year one under Smith, Presbyterian surpassed its win count from the past three campaigns put together. The end result was a promising tournament run, and memories that will last indefinitely.
