University of Houston
UCF
Women's Soccer Falls 2-1 at UCF In Regular Season Finale
10/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
Oct. 30, 2005
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ORLANDO, Fla. - Despite a 2-1 Conference USA loss to UCF on the final day of the regular season, the University of Houston women's soccer team earned the No. 8 seed in the C-USA Tournament, scheduled for Nov. 2-6 at Rice University in Houston.
The Cougars (8-6-3, 3-4-2 C-USA) finished in a three-way tie in the league standings with East Carolina and Tulsa. UH lost the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Pirates, giving ECU the seventh seed, but won the head-to-head matchup with the Golden Hurricane. UH defeated Tulsa 1-0 in double OT on Oct. 9.
UH will face No. 1 seed UCF for the second time in less than a week at Rice's Track and Soccer Stadium on Wednesday, Nov. 2, with the game time to be announced Monday. It is UH's first appearance in the league tournament since 2002. UH is 1-4 all-time in first round C-USA tournament games.
"Our girls are excited to play them (UCF) again," head coach Bill Solberg said. "They felt they deserved a better result today. They will be fired up for the match.
It's nice to be back in the tournament. I think we have a chance to shock some people if we play to our ability. If all of our girls play a full 90 minutes at 100 percent effort, I think we can make something happen."
Today's match marked the first-ever meeting between the two squads with the Golden Knights (11-9, 8-1 C-USA) getting on the board in the 20th minute. Jennifer Montgomery one-timed a shot past a diving Stephanie Pucek (Alvin, Texas/Alvin HS) after UCF midfielder Roberta Pelarigo served the ball into the box.
UH's answer came seconds later off the restart. Junior transfer Sophia Mundy (Katy, Texas/St. Pius X HS/Portland State) received the ball off the kickoff and took off weaving through the UCF defense and served the ball into the box from 35 yards out. Junior Sarah Fisher (Katy, Texas/Cypress Springs HS) was waiting and sent the ball from 18 yards out across the goal mouth to the far post, beating UCF `keeper Julie Snaman.
The teams played tight the rest of the way with Houston on the defensive most of the match. UCF took 14 shots and forced the Cougars into committing 13 fouls.
UCF scored the go-ahead goal in the 66th minute on a play similar to the Golden Knights' first goal. Montgomery sent the ball in to Erin Hopkins who one-timed it past Pucek to put UCF up 2-1.
"I thought we battled more in the second half than the first," Solberg said. "We scored a good equalizer after their goal. We got a little unorganized in the back on two serves and that led to their second goal."
UCF held the Cougars offense in check, limiting the team to five shots overall, three of which came from Mundy. UH also tallied just one corner kick, compared to four from UCF. Snaman earned the win, making just one save, while Pucek took the loss with four saves on six UCF shots on goal.
