Women’s soccer suffers 2-0 loss against Texas A&M, ties Arkansas on road stint
The women’s soccer team’s second weekend of SEC play was nothing if not challenging. An injury to a team captain, a red card in the first half of one game and two nullified goals in the other game topped the list of obstacles the Gamecocks had to face.
USC played two close games in spite of the roadblocks, but is still looking for its first conference win after a 2-0 loss to Texas A&M on Friday and a 1-1 draw with Arkansas on Sunday.
“I don’t know that they feel good about [the results], but they know they’ve worked hard and don’t leave anything on the field,” said coach Shelley Smith. “They know there are some things they need to improve when it comes to decision-making in the final third or making sure that we don’t make mistakes, especially when we’re tired. Those are things that they’ll continue to improve upon.”
Junior midfielder Elizabeth Sinclair did not appear in either game after suffering a muscle tear. Smith said there is no timeline for her return and that it will depend entirely on the healing process. As she recovers, Sinclair has still been a leader for the Gamecocks.
“We lost Elizabeth Sinclair as a leader on the field, but she’s still around and determined to lead as a voice in the locker room and on the sidelines,” Smith said. “Losing her has been difficult, but she remains a voice among the team.”
In Friday’s game, sophomore defender Christa Neary was ejected in the 41st minute, forcing South Carolina to play the entire second half one player down. Despite the disadvantage, Smith praised her team’s offensive effort against a team that has yet to give up a goal in its four SEC matches.
“I give the team a lot of credit to go out being a player down and do as well as they did against a good Texas A&M team,” Smith said. “Many times it didn’t even look like we had a player down. I thought we did great. We battled well and showed the heart we have. Unfortunately we even had chances to score and didn’t find the net.”
In the game against Arkansas, freshman forward Courtney Angotti-Smith found the net in the 16th minute only to have the goal taken away due to an offside call. South Carolina scored a second goal on a header off a corner kick just before halftime, but a foul was called on the play, negating that goal as well.
“The first goal, it was hard to argue,” Smith said. “She really was offside. ... The second goal, from being a 50-50 challenge in the box, to score a goal you had to run hard across defenders and get to the ball first, and we did that. It’s unfortunate when [the referees] feel there are fouls on aggressive play.”
The bright spot on Sunday was junior Danielle Au’s first goal of the season, which tied the game in the 70th minute. Au tied for second on the team with seven goals last season.
“[Au] is someone that should continue to threaten and be a goal-scorer for us,” Smith said. “She’s done it in the past, and if you can’t get that first goal, it gets frustrating. I’m glad that she was able to score a key goal for us in Sunday’s game. We definitely created a lot of opportunities. ... It meant a lot to finally have one go in.”