The Auburn women's soccer team dropped its first two conference games Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday, Sept. 15, losing 2-0 to 13th-ranked Missouri and 2-1 in overtime vs. Florida.
Against Missouri, long distance goals from Missouri's Kaysie Clark and Haley Krentz separated the two Tiger teams.
"Missouri did a better job of executing their gameplan and playing the way they wanted to play," Auburn coach Karen Hoppa said after the game. "We needed to connect more passes and be more effective offensively."
After non-conference wins over Auburn in 2008 and 2009, the Tigers from Columbia, Mo., celebrated their first win as a member of the SEC on Friday.
Despite allowing two goals, Auburn goalkeeper Amy Howard kept Auburn in the game with nine saves.
The defending SEC Defensive Player of the Week has made 19 saves in Auburn's last two matches.
"She was very good again tonight," Hoppa said. "Nine saves is a really high number. She saw a lot of shots, and I think that [Missouri's] two goals were really quality finishes."
Clark's 29th-minute goal, a low shot that took an awkward bounce at the last moment, broke the 0-0 deadlock and gave Missouri a lead Auburn was never able to overcome.
After trading good shots and quality possession with the conference newcomers, Auburn suffered from too many turnovers for the rest of the opening period.
The second half started off with more dominating play from Missouri.
Krentz doubled Missouri's lead in the 52nd minute with a 22-yard strike that was just out of Howard's diving reach.
From that point until the final whistle, Auburn looked determined to score.
Near misses and shots off the woodwork gave fans hope, but to the dismay of the newly christened student section, Hoppa's Hooligans, and the rest of the crowd at the Auburn Soccer Complex, none of those chances materialized into a goal.
"We had our opportunities," Hoppa said. "We hit a couple of crossbars, had an empty net chance that we missed. We had our chances, but we just didn't finish."
Auburn had a better showing against Florida and took the lead early, but junior forward Adriana Leon's long distance goal with 32 seconds left in the first overtime period completed No. 13 Florida's comeback, and the Tigers lost 2-1.
"I thought we did a good job with patience in our defense," Hoppa said. "We kept them in front of us... they're such a good possession team, you just have to give them that. You're not going to out-possess Florida, they're too good on the ball. I thought we were patient and the goal scored was great, exactly what we were trying to do. Unfortunately, we couldn't finish our other opportunities and Florida did."
Senior forward Mary Coffed put Auburn up, 1-0, in the fifth minute, when she finessed a shot low into the right corner past Florida goalkeeper Taylor Burke.
Sophomore forward Tatiana Coleman did a good job beating her defender on the right wing before sending a low cross into the box to Coffed for the assist.
The goal was Coffed's 14th of her career and third of the season.
Auburn took the 1-0 lead into halftime, but the Tigers were unable to keep up with Florida's dominating possession in the second half.
In the 73rd minute, Florida (4-3-1, 1-1-0 SEC) found the equalizer from senior midfielder Holly King.
Senior defender Jo Dragotta was credited with the assist after sending a free kick into the box where King was able to connect and slide the ball past Howard.
Auburn created several chances to go ahead in the final minutes of regulation, but was unable to find a finish.
Their best chance came in the 90th minute when the ball was crossed in from the right wing forcing Florida's Burke to make a diving save.
The rebound was loose in the box, but cleared away by Florida defenders before an Auburn player could possess it.
Florida won in overtime after Leon dribbled to the top of the box, following an Auburn foul, and fired a low shot past Howard into the left corner.
"They played a quick free kick and they transitioned out of the foul quicker than we did. We left her open and they punished us for it," Hoppa said.
Of the nine games Auburn has played this season, five have been decided by a single goal.
Auburn's record in those games is 2-3-0.
Auburn defeated Florida 3-2 last year to win the SEC Tournament, but this year, Auburn has fallen to an overall record of 4-5-0, 0-2-0 in the SEC.
The Tigers travel to Baton Rouge, La., to play LSU Friday, Sept. 21 for the first SEC road test of the season.
The Tigers then head west to challenge Texas A&M.
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