Short postseason was opportunity to improve
USC’s path to the postseason could not have been any more different from last year’s.
For the second straight time, the women’s soccer team exited the SEC Tournament in the quarterfinals. But last year, after winning the regular-season conference championship, South Carolina still had the NCAA Tournament to prepare for.
This time, after an emotional week in which the Gamecocks barely qualified for the SEC Tournament, the season ended Wednesday afternoon with a 1-0 overtime loss to Texas A&M in Orange Beach, Ala.
“It was an excellent effort,” Smith said. “That’s a very strong opponent offensively. They have tremendous attacking players, and we really did well to limit them.”
USC’s final regular-season game was last Thursday against Florida. With a win, the Gamecocks would have guaranteed themselves a spot in the 10-team SEC Tournament. Instead, they fell 3-0 to the Gators.
South Carolina’s fate was decided by three other conference matches that took place that night. The team just barely qualified as the tournament’s 10th seed.
Smith said the team was thrilled to extend its season and saw the tournament as an opportunity to improve upon its regular-season struggles.
“For us, it was a chance to redeem ourselves after some games this year when we thought we didn’t play as well as we could for 90 minutes,” Smith said. “It was a matter of executing and playing better than we had in the regular season.”
The Gamecocks faced the Razorbacks Monday night, taking an early lead when junior Danielle Au scored in the game’s fifth minute. After Arkansas tied the game, freshman Courtney Angotti-Smith headed the ball into the goal to give USC a 2-1 advantage at halftime.
Arkansas would tie the game and force an overtime, but freshman Stevi Parker came through with her second goal of the season less than four minutes into the extra period.
“Obviously, we’re thrilled to get a win,” Smith said in a release after the game. “We came here and didn’t want to go home yet ... We knew it was going to be a challenge for us, and we are thrilled to get through the first round.”
Wednesday afternoon, the Gamecocks took the field against the second-seeded Aggies, a team that beat them 2-0 in the regular season in a game where South Carolina was down a player the entire second half.
USC contained A&M’s offense to nine shots in the game, and sophomore goalie Sabrina D’Angelo, who was named to the all-SEC second team, had two saves.
But after 90 minutes of regulation ended in a scoreless tie, the tables turned on the Gamecocks in overtime. The Aggies’ Jayne Eadie scored in the 94th minute, drawing D’Angelo out of the goal.
As South Carolina (7-10-4) looks back on its season, Smith said the team’s emotions are a mix of pride and disappointment.
“They played their hearts out ... Coming off a game where they had to play an overtime on Monday against a team that was fresh on Wednesday took a tremendous amount of heart and effort,” Smith said. “I’m proud of them.
“But at the same time ... it’s been that kind of season. We weren’t doing well to finish our chances when we were given those opportunities. Offensively, we weren’t good enough this year. Defensively, we had some things that broke down as well. It’s a team effort. We need to be better at finishing off games and opponents, and we can play with anybody.”