Over the past week, the American Athletic Conference Women’s Soccer Championship occurred in Lakewood Ranch, Fla. The Championship concluded with the final match on Sunday, Nov. 5.
The championship began with eight teams from the AAC: Memphis, UAB, Charlotte, East Carolina, SMU, Tulsa, Florida Atlantic and South Florida. As the teams battled it out, some fell and others put up a good fight, but only one team went on to win it all.
The quarter-finals kicked off on Tuesday, Oct. 31, with the first game between No.1-seeded Memphis and No. 8-seeded UAB where the Tigers beat the Blazers 2-1 to move on to the semi-finals. On the other side of the bracket, No.5 Charlotte overcame No.4 East Carolina 5-0 to move on to the next round.
Next, No.3 SMU took on No.6 Tulsa with the Mustangs coming out victorious, beating the Golden Hurricanes 2-1. In the last game of the quarterfinals, No.7 seed Florida Atlantic defeated No.2 seed South Florida 1-0, to advance to the semi-finals.
With half of the teams now eliminated, the match-ups were set for the next phase of the tournament.
The tournament continued Thursday with the first match coming between Memphis and Charlotte. The Tigers defeated the 49ers 2-0 to move on to the final match of the tournament.
With an assist from midfielder Honoka Hamano, Memphis forward Anna Hauer scored the first point for the Tigers in the 32nd minute of the match. The score would remain 1-0 for the rest of the half until the 80th minute when forward Mya Jones was awarded a penalty kick and scored for Memphis to win 2-0 over the 49ers.
The second semi-final game was a match-up between SMU and Florida Atlantic where the Mustangs beat the Owls 3-0.
In just the first three minutes into the game, midfielder Wayny Balata scored for the Mustangs with an assist from Mayu Inokawa. In the ninth minute of the game, Balata scored again after being awarded a penalty kick, putting SMU up 2-0.
Throughout the game, Florida Atlantic put up a fight by saving three shots on goal, though allowed a goal in the 81st minute, ending its tournament run. The final goal was scored by forward Eliana Salama with an assist from midfielder Leah Chancey to give the Mustangs a 3-0 win to advance to the finals.
The final match took place on Sunday between Memphis and SMU.
Both teams remained scoreless for a lengthy period at the beginning of the game. It was in the 40th minute when freshman forward Ashley Henderson scored with the help of an assist from Momo Nakao, putting the Tigers up 1-0.
In the 72nd minute, Memphis scored again when forward Delaney Tellex kicked a cross that bounced off a Mustang defender and into the net to bring the score to 2-0. In the 79th minute, SMU forward Truth Byars put the Mustangs on the board with a goal.
Memphis keeper Kaylie Bierman ended up with five saves for the Tigers. Due to Bierman defending the goal so fiercely, the score would remain 2-1 for the rest of the game, causing the Memphis Tigers to go on to win their third consecutive conference soccer title.
The No. 8 nationally ranked Memphis Tigers advanced to the NCAA Tournament where they will play until eliminated. Game one for the Tigers begins on Friday against the LSU Tigers.
