Auburn, Arkansas come to Columbia this weekend
Coming off a loss at the hands of Georgia last Friday, the South Carolina women’s soccer team is set to return home this weekend to play its first two conference home games. The Gamecocks host the Auburn Tigers Friday followed by Arkansas Sunday.
After completing the nonconference portion of their schedule undefeated for just the third time in school history, South Carolina (7-1-1) dropped its first contest of the year in the team’s conference opener at Georgia.
A common theme in the last couple games for the Gamecocks has been their inability to convert on scoring chances, recording just one goal in their last 34 shot attempts. Ball possession has been heavily in South Carolina’s favor over the last two games, but according to coach Shelley Smith, execution makes all the difference.
“We’ve got to find ways to beat the keeper,” Smith said. “We’re capable so it’s not something that we have to change a lot of our game. It’s just getting ready to finish on Friday night.”
The focus this week in practice has been creating better opportunities to finish in the offensive third. Part of practice was devoted to shortened–field games of 5–on–5 to constantly throw the players into scoring opportunities. The goal was to execute on scoring chances in practice to raise confidence for game action. Smith stressed that her players need to be more selective with their crosses and services rather than “forcing it because we’re close.”
This weekend’s games serve as a significant test to see where the Gamecocks stand in respect to their SEC competition.
“It’s huge,” senior midfielder Elizabeth Sinclair said. “We have two good teams coming in, and it’s a Friday night. We’ve had a lot of good support from Gamecock nation so it’s just really exciting to play at home and especially now that it’s conference and the games are that much better.”
Junior goalkeeper Sabrina D’Angelo, who has been the backbone for South Carolina this season with seven shutouts, reiterated that the team has been playing well all-around. D’Angelo said the team will be fine if they “just keep playing the way we’re playing.”
Auburn comes into the contest with a 4-4-1 record after dropping its conference opener to Kentucky by a score of 1-0 last Friday. But the Tigers rebounded by defeating Southern Miss 6-0 on Sunday.
The Razorback’s record (7-2) indicates they may be the tougher of the two teams South Carolina will face this weekend. Arkansas is off to one of its hottest starts in recent memory despite dropping the conference opener to Ole Miss.
Despite a strong Arkansas team poised to challenge the Gamecocks on their home turf Sunday, Sinclair insists her teammates will not overlook Auburn Friday.
“They’re a lot of high pressure in our end,” Sinclair said. “We just need a lot of keeping the ball, making sure we possess it well and again, when we get our chances, just to finish them.”