SAN ANTONIO — UTSA soccer dropped its second American Conference game of the season with a 2-0 loss to No.4 University of Memphis on Thursday at Park West Athletics Complex.
The third place Roadrunners (7-4-5, 3-2-3 AC) are no strangers to highly-ranked matchups on their home turf, having faced No.9 Texas Christian University earlier this season. No amount of preparation could help the ‘Runners ward off the unbeaten Tigers, (14-0-2, 8-0-1 AC) who led in every major stat outside of saves and maintained possession of the ball consistently. UTSA struggled to create opportunities on offense, and any chances of a comeback were squandered with Memphis drilling an insurance goal in the 76th minute.
“Let’s be honest, guys, Memphis is undefeated and a top five program in the country for a reason,” coach Derek Pittman said after the game. “I am extremely proud of our players, their attitude and their effort. We talked about it this week, that we needed to bounce back from a poor performance against Tulsa. What that looked like was focus, commitment and intensity.
“I thought our players ticked every one of those boxes tonight: Carrying out the gameplan, being committed to one another, being committed to leaving everything out there and playing with intensity. That’s UTSA soccer. We will build on this.”
Pittman was proud of his team’s performance, and noted that for his team, success was not going to be determined by the scoreboard.
“Do we want to win? Of course. I want to knock off a top five team in the country. I would love to. But, the bottom line is, success tonight was not in the scorebook,” Pittman explained. “Success tonight was playing with intensity, and they did exactly that.”
Memphis drew first blood in the 24th minute when forward Elise Perron weaved her way through traffic before launching a shot between UTSA sophomore defender Aaliyaiah Durden’s legs and past senior goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler.
The Roadrunners battled the Tigers for the next 50 minutes, with Kessler notching seven saves along the way, before Memphis delivered the final blow.
Tigers defender Evelyn Mackay maneuvered her way around UTSA senior defender Haley Lopez and slipped the ball past Kessler in what Pittman described as an “uncharacteristic and unfortunate” play from his stalwart goalkeeper.
The ‘Runners were completely outmatched against Memphis. The Tigers led in shots, (17 to 2) shots on goal (10 to 2) and corners (9 to 2) en route to handing UTSA its second-straight conference loss.
UTSA will hold its final regular season home game against East Carolina University at 1 p.m. Sunday at Park West Athletics Complex.
