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A spirit that is not afraid

Auburn soccer beats Missouri; coach Karen Hoppa earns 300th win

<p>Auburn soccer head coach Karen Hoppa celebrates with her team after their 1-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana University in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. SLU vs Auburn soccer at the Auburn Soccer Complex on Saturday, Nov. 14.</p>

Auburn soccer head coach Karen Hoppa celebrates with her team after their 1-0 victory over Southeastern Louisiana University in the first round of the NCAA playoffs. SLU vs Auburn soccer at the Auburn Soccer Complex on Saturday, Nov. 14.

In a fierce battle between teams eyeing a post season spot, Auburn rallied to pull out a huge win against Missouri, 1-0 Sunday afternoon at Audrey J. Walton Soccer Stadium.

This win was Auburn head coach Karen Hoopa’s 300th career win. Coach Hoppa is the 28th coach in the history to lead her team to 300 wins in the Division I level. She is just the eighth female head coach to accomplish this triumph. 

"This win is more important right now because of what it does for the team," Hoppa said. "But to get 300, that's a really big milestone and something that when I was 23 years old starting out as a Division I head coach I never even could've imagined. 

"It's a credit to the incredible coaches and staff I've had the opportunity to work with and all of the players I've coached. I'm really blessed to still be doing this."

Freshman Hailey Whitaker rocketed in the only goal of the night at the 70th minute to give Auburn (11-3-1, 3-3-1 SEC) the game. It was her second goal of the season and her first career game-winner. 

Senior captains Taylor Troutman and Gianna Montini made precision passes to give Whitaker the assist on this play.

"We were in a five-way tie for seventh in the league, and obviously our goal is to get to Orange Beach," Hoppa said. "This win gets us one step closer. The team was way better in the second half. We asked them to do some things at halftime, and they executed much better." 

After a scoreless 69 minutes, Whitaker dashed down the center of the pitch and flew by a gang of Missouri (5-8-2, 2-4-1 SEC) defenders. She belted the shot off of her right foot from just outside the 18-yard box. 

"It was a really intense moment, and I knew this game was very important for us to win," Whitaker said. "I had to go at it full force, and I'm glad that it went in for our team. We were going a little slow in the first half, and we knew we had to step it up to win this game. We came out of halftime with high intensity and it showed." 

After that point, goalkeeper Sarah Le Beau and the Auburn defense buckled down. They held strong through a barrage of 16 shots from Missouri, five of which came from redshirt junior Maddison Lewis. 

Le Beau pulled off a diving save in the 86th minute to keep the shutout alive. Defensively, Auburn earned its ninth shutout of the season (four shutouts in conference play and its second straight).

Le Beau has now amassed 28 shutouts in her career. The team is currently tied with the fourth-most shutouts in Auburn history.

Fifteen Tigers saw time on the pitch, including seven who played all 90 minutes.

Auburn continues its march to the end of the SEC schedule by hosting No. 12 Vanderbilt (13-1-1, 6-0-1 SEC) Thursday at 6:30 p.m. CT at the Auburn Soccer Complex


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