Women’s Soccer Falls in C-USA Title Game

Sunday, November 10

Denton, Texas

1:00 PM

Florida Atlantic

15-4-2

North Texas (Championship)

15-5-1

North Texas

Florida Atlantic

11/10/2019 4:49:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

DENTON, Texas – Florida Atlantic University women's soccer saw their run in the Conference USA Championship come to an end in the title game, falling to North Texas, 5-2.

In order for the FAU (15-4-2) season to continue, it would be if the team receives an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. The 2019 Division I women's soccer selection show takes place live on NCAA.com at 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

The Turning Point:
The first half was back and forth: the Mean Green (15-5-1) dented the scoreboard first, in the 13th, but a handful of minutes later, the Owls knotted it up on an Elisha Holmes rocket. The Owls took the lead in the 32nd, with Sammy Vitols toeing it in off a nice assist from Pernille Velta, but UNT had an answer six minutes after. The teams took a 2-2 stalemate into the locker room.

The Finish:
UNT made good on a corner kick in the 54th, and off a cross in the 58th for a two-score advantage. FAU had a good look from Tiril Haga just after that second goal, but it was saved. That was the Owls' only attempt before UNT went up by three with a breakaway in the 71st, and would actually be their final shot of the match.

Notables:

Holmes doubled her goal total on the season in this tournament, and now has four on the year; For Vitols, that marked her seventh
Velta regained the team lead with her sixth – and then added her seventh – assist
She now holds second place all to herself on the FAU all-time list
Holmes, Velta and Jessica Monteiro were named to the All-Tournament Team

Quotable

"I'm sad for our girls, I'm disappointed that we didn't play a little bit better and deal with set pieces a little bit better," said head coach Patrick Baker. "But it's been a wonderful preseason, and non-conference and conference season, and to be the regular season champs over the course of that time and then to get here and play in three action-packed games. I had a quiet word with the team in the locker room … just because we don't know if we're going to play again. We think we have a healthy RPI, and we hope the committee will look favorably on our whole body of work, but I also told our players if we didn't get another chance to play again, I wanted to address them. It's a special group of seniors, it's a special team, but it's been driven by our seniors. I just couldn't be more proud of a group of young ladies that have shared our vision of coming to Boca Raton and Florida Atlantic University and wanting to help change the complexion of our program."

Full Video with Coach Baker:

What's Potentially Next

Again, the NCAA selection show will be streamed Monday on NCAA.com beginning at 4:30 p.m. Should the Owls receive an invite, the first round of the NCAA Tournament can take place one of three days, Nov. 15-17, at selected host locations.