MATTHEWS, N.C. —In a scrappy Big South Tournament semifinal, the third-seeded High Point University women's soccer fell to second-seeded USC Upstate Thursday afternoon, 2-0. It was the final game of the season for the Panthers.
SITE: Matthews Sportsplex
SCORE: High Point 0, USC Upstate
RECORDS: High Point (6-5-7), UNC Asheville (11-3-4)
Head Coach Aaron McGuiness: "Tonight was the story of our season. We played some very good soccer but couldn't put our chances away. I'm disappointed for the players. They left everything on the field tonight. We've made some good strides this season and we will analyze this performance and continue to improve from it."
It was a tough pill to swallow for the Panthers as they held the advantage in nearly every category minus fouls as USC Upstate had 10 fouls compared to HPU's four. The team competed from start to finish, clawing for a play to shift the momentum. Unfortunately, it never synced at the right moments to do so.
After the Spartans scored in the fifth minute, HPU had multiple chances as
Tessa Carlin,
Fain Buete,
Emily Mashinski,
Meg Roden, and
Marthina Aguirre all fired off shots.
Ellyn Casto laid out for a save to keep it 1-1 early in the second half — as she had three total saves — before Upstate found another goal in the 77th minute.
The 2-nil result doesn't properly reflect the play as HPU fought until the final minute, but had too many unlucky breaks.
#GoHPU
