The Eastern Washington University soccer team fell into a hole too big in the opening round of the Big Sky Conference soccer playoffs, losing to the No. 6 seed, Sacramento State 3-1, Thursday, Nov. 5 in Moscow, Idaho.
The Hornets opened scoring on a goal by Jennifer Lum in the eigth minute and added to lead on the first of two goals from Kayla Collins in the 46th minute.
Devan Talley got the third-seeded Eagles on the board in the 77th minute with an arcing shot across the 18-yard box that struck the inside of the post and trickled past the goal line. Chloe Williams assisted on the goal. Collins, however, iced it in the 86th minute with her second goal.
“We’re disappointed because we expected more from ourselves after having had such a good regular season, but I’m proud of our players for the year they had,” EWU head coach Chad Bodnar said.
Eastern outshot Sacramento State, 19-14, but the Hornets made the most of their chances, converting three of their seven shots on goal. The Hornets’ defense limited the Eagles to just two shots in the second half.
“I thought we started well, but we let in a bad goal and it took some air out of us,” Bodnar said. “We needed to be able to respond to that better than we did.”
Eastern ends its season with an overall record of 12-4-3 while Sacramento State advanced to the semifinals where they lost to eventual champion Northern Colorado, 3-1 on Nov. 6.
Eastern’s season will go down as its best in school history. The Eagles set new single-season records for overall victories (12), Big Sky Conference wins (6) and longest winning streak (8) while scoring a program-record 34 goals in 19 matches.
Eagles’ sophomore Williams became the first player in program history to earn Big Sky Offensive MVP honors and was a First Team All-Big Sky pick.
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