Auburn soccer was eliminated from the SEC Tournament on Tuesday, falling to No. 1 overall seed Arkansas 4-0 in Pensacola, Florida, at the Ashton Brosnaham Soccer Complex.
The Razorbacks, who suffered their only conference loss of the regular season to the Tigers, came ready to play offensively, attacking Auburn aggressively in both halves and securing their eighth shutout on the season.
Arkansas scored two goals in each half, ensuring that the girls in orange and blue could not go on a momentous run. The Razorbacks’ goals were scored by Morgan White, Bea Franklin, Anna Podojil and Kate Carter.
The Razorbacks’ performance was backed up on the stat sheet, creating 22 shot opportunities to Auburn’s seven. In addition to this, 10 of the shots that Arkansas took were on goal, while the Tigers only had two.
Arkansas also created many scoring opportunities from corner kicks, picking up eight chances from that distance as opposed to the two that Auburn took.
Auburn’s contributions were not made too far from each other though.
The Tigers' scoring opportunities came in equal bunches in both halves by four different players. Senior Becky Contreras and junior LJ Knox posed the biggest scoring threats on the night, each contributing a shot on goal. Knox also created a corner kick opportunity.
The defensive efforts also played a huge part in Auburn’s efforts. Knox, along with Maddie Simpson, Anna Haddock and Hayden Colson assisted in pushing back the Razorback attacking front with their blocked shots.
Senior goalkeeper Maddie Prohaska also added on to her statistics, saving six of Arkansas’ scoring chances. Tonight’s performance pushed her to 67 saves on the season and 259 in her distinguished Auburn career.
Head coach Karen Hoppa is hopeful that her team’s performance this season will allow the squad to play even longer, as they await further postseason fate.
“It was a tall task to take on the top seed with significantly less rest, but our girls battled hard for all of it,” Hoppa said. “We had a few dangerous chances, and if we put those away, it’s a totally different story. I’m proud of how we grew and finished down the stretch. I think our resume is a great candidate for the (NCAA) tournament.”
The Tigers currently rank 71st in the RPI ahead of the 2023 NCAA Tournament Selection show, where they will find out their season’s destiny on Nov. 6.
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Tyler Raley is a junior from Birmingham, Alabama, majoring in journalism.
Twitter: @traley34
