By BILL LEVY (Click here to see other photos)
FORT MYERS – Florida Gulf Coast University women’s soccer coach Jim Blankenship preferred to talk about the positives following his team’s season ending 1-0 defeat at the hands of Auburn in front of a venue record, standing room only crowd of 2,014 at the FGCU Soccer Complex on Saturday night. The loss snaps a 17 game winning streak at home for the 26th ranked Eagles (dating back to 2013) who finished the season at (17-4, 7-0) and were winners of the Atlantic Sun Conference.
“I’m proud of our team,” Blankenship said. “I am proud of our effort. I am proud of the season we had. You saw the end product today. Being able to host (an NCAA tournament game) says how far we have come.”
Auburn coach Karen Hoppa was also quick to give props to the Eagles, as Saturday’s game marked the first time FGCU ever hosted an NCAA Division 1 Tournament event in any sport
“I would like to congratulate FGCU on a great game and a great season,” she said. “They also did a great job hosting this game. It was a great atmosphere. We gutted it out and I thought our defense won it.”
The Eagles were without the services of their leading goal scorer Tabby Tindell most of the game as she injured her leg early in the contest.
“We came out strong, Eagles midfielder Ally Kasun said, but it (Tindell’s injury) took us back a little bit.”
29th ranked Auburn (12-6-3, 5-3-3 SEC) would then score the only goal of the game, about ten minutes in as Tori Bell’s pass found Haley Gerken who was able to score.
“It was miscommunication,” Kasun said.
The Eagles however were able to control the tempo most of the second half, as Blankenship attributed it to a halftime talk Kasun and Eagles’ defender Emma Blackwell had with the team.
“We connected, passed and moved more,” he said, but they gave a great halftime speech.”
“We regrouped and dominated,” Kasun said.
That would not be enough though as Tigers goalie Alyse Scott made a couple of big saves; including one on which she stopped Eagles forward Shannen Wacker from point blank range with about five minutes to go in the game.
“It was off a corner,” Scott said. “She was open. I was like ‘oh no!’ She fired a rocket and I am glad it wasn’t to the left or right.”
“She (Scott) was in the right position,” Hoppa said. “That was a big time save.”
After that the Tigers were able to take back control, and with it, advance to face Texas A&M in the second round on November 21st in Gainesville.
“Give them credit,” Blankenship said. “They weathered the storm.”
Blackwell echoed her coach’s sentiments in not letting the score take away from what the Eagles accomplished.
“It was a great atmosphere,” she said. “It just wasn’t our night but I’m proud of the team.”