Arizona women’s soccer loss a close game to No. 6 USC at Mulcahy Stadium Thursday night after committing a foul in the box allowing Trojans Alex Anthony to score off a penalty kick.
The Wildcats hung in with the Trojans for the majority of the game making it a competitive match for the 674 fans in attendance. In the 108′ in extra time, Anthony redeemed herself after missing a previous penalty kick by scoring the winning goal giving USC the victory.
“They’re a really good team the fact that it took a penalty kick for them to beat us…it sucks to lose on a penalty kick,” Arizona goalkeeper Lainey Burdett said.
In the 98′ USC drew a foul in the box giving them an opportunity to seal a victory. Anthony’s shot sailed well over the crossbar giving the Wildcats some hope. 10 minutes later it was deja vu all over as the lead official blew his whistle again awarding the Trojans another penalty kick. This time Anthony went low left corner getting one pass the diving Burdett.
“On the second one I didn’t think that she would end up going the same way but, again you never know with penalty kick’s it’s a 50-50 chance,” Burdett said.
Things got chippy at times between both teams, but it was USC who got the benefit of the doubt.
“We had the same exact trips, pushes, jersey pulls but it just didn’t go our way,” forward Jill Aguilera said.
On most nights the Wildcats out-shoot their opponent, tonight was a different story as USC out-shot Arizona 15-8. The Wildcats had some opportunities of their own but were unable to cash in. Midfielder Cali Crisler, had one shot ding off the crossbar that would’ve given the Wildcats a win in extra time.
“I tried to take it inside to get a shot with my left, we needed to create opportunities and it was in overtime, I just had to get a shot off,” Crisler said.
Although the result wasn’t what the Wildcats wanted, Arizona knew what they were up against and took some positives out of this match as they get ready to face the No.1 ranked team in the nation, UCLA.
“It was an unlucky result but moving forward we can keep our heads up,” Aguilera said.
Arizona (5-4-2) will have no time dwell on this loss as they host No.1 UCLA (10-0-1) on Sunday, Oct.8 at 12:00 p.m.
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