Heartbreak was the name of the game for the women's soccer team this weekend as it suffered road losses to South Carolina (12-0-1, 4-0-1 SEC) and Florida (10-4-1, 4-1-1 SEC).
The losses dropped Auburn's record to 5-6-3, 2-4-0 SEC.
Auburn held South Carolina to zero goals throughout the game and into overtime. In the 73rd minute, senior midfielder Chelsea Yauch came close to snapping the scoreless tie, but a solid defensive play from South Carolina slowed her progress.
The winning shot came from Samantha Diaz-Matosas, when she cleared an unassisted goal from 20 yards out in the 98th minute of play.
The Tigers finished the match with seven shots, three of those on frame.
South Carolina took 17 shots in the game. Freshman goalkeeper Amy Howard, the SEC saves leader, had seven saves.
During the Florida game Sunday, the Gators took an early lead 20 minutes in, as Angela Napolitano made her first goal of the season.
The Tigers had few scoring opportunities with only four shots in the match. Their first scoring opportunity didn't come until a little after halftime, a long shot that Florida goalkeeper Katie Fraine easily stopped.
The next opportunity didn't arrive until the 69th minute, when Jessica Rightmer's shot from outside the six was deflected over the crossbar by a Florida player for an Auburn corner.
The resulting serve found senior forward Caitlin King's head, but her attempt was wide of the net.
Howard had three saves during the game, upping her season total to 80.
Head coach Karen Hoppa attributed part of the losses to playing Top 15 teams on the road.
"With the South Carolina game, we actually played really well and had a lot of chances to win and just got very unlucky in overtime," Hoppa said. "At Florida, we played really well until the last 13 minutes."
Hoppa said the team is going to focus most of its energy this week to creating more chances on goal.
"Our biggest issue is we've got to find a way to score goals," Hoppa said. "We haven't scored in three games and that's a problem."
With a few of the senior starters out with injuries, the team has been forced to make adjustments to its formation, not an easy task mid-season.
"We started the season as an old team, but with the injuries became a young team quickly," said senior midfielder Jenni Prescott. "That's a challenge we need to overcome."
Prescott also said with both games, the team had opportunities on which it didn't capitalize.
Both games were the opposing team's senior night, which drew a large fan base against the Tigers.
Junior defender Sammy Towne said playing on the road is like playing a goal down and having to play that much harder.
She said the team needs to be more consistent in the backfield and with saving goals.
"We're asking the questions right now, too," Towne said. "What do we have to do? We're trying to figure it out ourselves."
Prescott said the team has great chemistry together and are all best friends, but needs to figure out how to bring that onto the field. The Tigers look for a win this week, hosting Vanderbilt Friday.
Vanderbilt, who has yet to win a road game, is also coming off losses. The team lost three straight conference games in Nashville last week.
Vanderbilt's only conference win this season came against Tennessee in an overtime thriller. The team is averaging 16.1 shot attempts per game while the Tigers are right behind them with 14.1 attempts per game.
In the series history between the two teams, Vanderbilt leads 6-5-2 with Auburn winning the last three meetings.
Friday's game will be a power pink game in support of breast cancer awareness and the team will be decked out in pink uniforms.
"It's always fun to wear pink," Towne said.
The team wore pink for the Vanderbilt game last year.
Towne said these games really mean a lot to the team, especially since several of the girls have had family members who battled the disease.
Prescott said she feels beat down after this weekend, but is optimistic and doesn't want those feelings to carry over this week.
"When you're at home, you have that vibe and that energy that can push you through so much," Prescott said. "We still have five games and we're not out of it yet by any means."
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