Auburn suffered its first loss of the season Thursday night, as the Tigers fell to Wake Forest 2-0 at the program's Mental Health Match.
“Obviously disappointed in the result,” said head coach Karen Hoppa. “That’s a very good Wake Forest team, and we knew that coming in. They were just much better on their finishing percentage, which was the difference. We’ve got to be better in that area. It’s early, so we’ve still got a lot to learn, but we’ll grow and get stronger.”
Despite losing to Wake Forest, the Tigers had a few positives to walk away with.
Senior goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska hit 200 career saves for Auburn in her fourth year of starting, becoming the sixth Auburn goalkeeper to accomplish this feat in program history.
Hoppa highlighted midfielder Maquena O’Callaghan’s excellent performance off the bench as the freshman played 69 minutes and recorded one shot on goal.
“The freshman played maybe her best game so far,” Hoppa said.
Wake Forest started the game with possession and ended up outweighing Auburn’s percentage 54-46 by the final.
Both teams started the game with blocked offensive attacks. Although, Wake Forest soon had a continuous drive with multiple attacks towards the goal.
Auburn countered with two corner kicks, however, they were both cleared by Wake Forest.
After the back-and-forth play between the two teams, Wake Forest took the lead 1-0 due to an own goal in the 41st minute.
Coming out of the half, Alex Wood quickly scored the second goal for Wake Forest. Despite being down 2-0, the Tigers kept fighting and drew nine fouls by the end of the game.
Auburn kept fighting by creating three shots on goal in the final 10 minutes. However, its consistent attacks fell short, as Auburn could not find a goal.
Hoppa shared a few words as the team gets prepared to take on American on Sunday.
“Our on frame shots on goal percentage, out of our shots, that’s got to be better," Hoppa said "I think we got to be better in transition to defense.”
However, she still commended her team for creating attacking oppotunities.
“A positive takeaway is we created 13 chances against a really good ACC team,” Hoppa said.
As Auburn hosted its Mental Health Match, Hoppa shared a few words on what mental health means to her and why this match has importance.
“The mental challenges and mental wear and tear on student athletes and athletes at the highest level is very draining," Hoppa said. "If we talk about it and we get help with it it makes us better as athletes, students and people so it's something that we're really proud to bring attention to.”
Auburn’s record now stands at 3-1-1 as the Tigers face off against American (0-2-2) Sunday at 2 p.m. CST on SECN+.
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Caroline Roberts is a freshman from Athens, Alabama, majoring in sports production and broadcasting. She joined The Plainsman in Fall 2023.
