The Auburn Tigers travelled to Morgantown, West Virginia, to face West Virginia Thursday and finished with a 1-1 draw against the Mountaineers.
West Virginia’s Taylor White, a sophomore, scored the first goal of the game in the 52nd minute. She was assisted by senior Chloe Adler. Soon after, Auburn’s Carly Thatcher, a junior, answered with a goal for the Tigers in the 66th minute with assistance from fifth year Sydney Richards.
“I thought it was a great performance by our team,” said head coach Karen Hoppa. “We played really well. We created a ton of opportunities. We were unlucky not to get a second one, but overall, I’m really pleased with how we played against the reigning Big 12 Tournament champions.”
Head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown of West Virginia said, “I thought both teams battled, you know, I thought we had the better of the chances, I’m not gonna lie. But, you know, we need to put that other one that hit the post back in the net.”
Auburn’s Sammie Brown, daughter of West Virginia’s head coach Nikki Izzo-Brown, initiated the scoring play, making a run out wide and finding a slant pass back to Richards on the top right corner of the box. Richards tipped off the shot that deflected off the low end of the right post, which then made it to the right foot of Thatcher for the one-touch tap-in.
“It was really exciting to break it through and put us right back in it,” Thatcher said. “I think we’ve learned a lot in this match that we are going to use as positive momentum going forward.”
Throughout the game, a total of 11 shots were made by the Tigers, five of which were on goal. West Virginia’s total of seven shots included five on goal. Auburn’s Maddie Prohaska and West Virginia’s Kayla Massey both had four saves, tonight becoming Prohaska’s second-most saves this season. Auburn also created six corner kicks over the course of the night, while West Virginia could only muster three.
This game’s fight for a tie between the Tigers and Mountaineers is reminiscent of last season’s game, which ended in a 0-0 tie. The Tigers had 13 shots total, seven on goal, while the Mountaineers recorded four total shots with none on goal, as neither team was successful in scoring a goal.
Auburn, with a record of 4-1-2, will face Ohio State on Sept. 11, at 11 a.m. CT in Columbus, Ohio.
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Ruby Hudson is a freshman from Cullman, Alabama, majoring in biomedical sciences. She joined The Plainsman in Fall 2023.
