Owls Edged Out at C-USA Tourney

Tuesday, April 13

Houston, Texas

5 PM

Florida Atlantic

5-4-2

Southern Miss (Quarterfinals)

7-3-0

Southern Miss

Florida Atlantic

Photo by: Maria Lysaker

4/13/2021 8:55:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

HOUSTON – The 2021 spring season for Florida Atlantic University women's soccer came to an end Tuesday, as the Owls fell to Southern Miss in the Conference USA Championship quarterfinal round, 2-1.

The Beginning
The majority of the first half was scoreless, but Southern Miss (7-3-0) drew first blood late, on a goal in the 41st minute. That snapped a combined stretch of the FAU (5-4-2) defense holding opponents scoreless for 260:47 of game time, nearly four full matches (dating back to March 19, early in the 2nd half by Old Dominion).

The Turning Point:
The Golden Eagles needed just 24 seconds of play in the second half to double their lead.

The Finish:
The Owls halved the deficit in the 68th, with Hunter Koziara setting up the play, passing ahead to Thelma Hermannsdottir, who served it perfectly to Mia Sennes for the goal.

For the remaining time, the Owls had six corners and six shots, but couldn't find the equalizer. The final corner came with just over two minutes left, off it, a back-post header attempt went wide. A Gi Krstec shot from 30 yards out – a great look with a minute left – was FAU's last chance, but was saved.

Notables:

Sennes recorded the second goal of her young Owl career
On the assist, it was the first this season for both Koziara and Hermannsdottir
Krstec had a team-high three shot attempts, two on goal, and both of Emma Grissom's shots were on target as well
Also with two shots each – towards the Owls' 15 – were Hermannsdottir, Koziara and Sammy Vitols

Quotable:
"First of all, congrats to Coach and Southern Miss on their win today and advancing to the semifinals," said head coach Patrick Baker. "They were the better team and scored two critical goals at key moments of the game. We showed some fight and got back into the game with a well-taken goal by (Mia) Sennes through good interchange from (Hunter) Koziara and (Thelma) Hermannsdottir. At the end of 90 minutes, our overall quality of soccer wasn't good enough and we didn't create clear cut chances to score goals. We had a number of corner kicks but lacked the service and/or the runs to really ask questions of their defense. Proud of how far we have come the past four weeks and wish the tonight had a different outcome. We will get back to Boca and finish the semester strong academically, regroup, and hopefully come back strong for the fall 2021 season."

What's Next:
The Owls' 2020-21 campaign has come to an end.