Auburn coach Karen Hoppa was also quick to give props to the Eagles, as Saturday\u2019s game marked the first time FGCU ever hosted an NCAA Division 1 Tournament event in any sport<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to congratulate FGCU on a great game and a great season,\u201d she said. \u201cThey also did a great job hosting this game. It was a great atmosphere. We gutted it out and I thought our defense won it.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe came out strong, Eagles midfielder Ally Kasun said, but it (Tindell\u2019s injury) took us back a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n 29th<\/sup> 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\u2019s pass found Haley Gerken who was able to score.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was miscommunication,\u201d Kasun said.<\/p>\n The Eagles however were able to control the tempo most of the second half, as Blankenship attributed it to a \u00a0halftime talk Kasun and Eagles\u2019 defender Emma Blackwell had with the team.<\/p>\n \u201cWe connected, passed and moved more,\u201d he said, but they gave a great halftime speech.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe regrouped and dominated,\u201d Kasun said.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was off a corner,\u201d Scott said. \u201cShe was open. I was like \u2018oh no!\u2019 She fired a rocket and I am glad it wasn\u2019t to the left or right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe (Scott) was in the right position,\u201d Hoppa said. \u201cThat was a big time save.\u201d<\/p>\n 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<\/sup> in Gainesville.<\/p>\n \u201cGive them credit,\u201d Blankenship said. \u201cThey weathered the storm.\u201d<\/p>\n Blackwell echoed her coach\u2019s sentiments in not letting the score take away from what the Eagles accomplished.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a great atmosphere,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just wasn\u2019t our night but I\u2019m proud of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By BILL LEVY (Click here to see other photos) FORT MYERS \u2013 Florida Gulf Coast University women\u2019s soccer coach Jim Blankenship preferred to talk about the positives following his team\u2019s… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33613"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/IMG_2919-300x247.jpg\" "\\"IMG_2919\\"")
FORT MYERS \u2013 Florida Gulf Coast University women\u2019s soccer coach Jim Blankenship preferred to talk about the positives following his team\u2019s 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<\/sup> ranked Eagles (dating back to 2013) who finished the season at (17-4, 7-0) and were winners of the Atlantic Sun Conference.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m proud of our team,\u201d Blankenship said. \u201cI am proud of our effort. I am proud of the season we had. You saw the end product today.\u00a0 Being able to host (an NCAA tournament game) says how far we have come.\u201d<\/p>\n