Women’s Soccer Loses 2-0 In American Tournament Semifinal

The USF women’s soccer team was unceremoniously dumped out of the American Athletic Conference tournament by UConn 2-0 in Storrs on Friday night.

The Huskies got on the board in the 38th minute when forward Rachel Hill ripped a shot across the face of net and into the upper 90. Stephanie Ribeiro doubled their lead in the 50th minute with a shot from the edge of the 18-yard box that got past Kelli Burney and stranded Kat Elliott on her line as it rolled into the bottom corner of the net.

The Bulls had their chances, including a 1-on-1 between Evelyne Viens and UConn keeper Emily Armstrong, but could not find the net. The Bulls managed eight shots in the second half and 10 total, but only three were on target.

The Bulls simply ran into a better team. While USF looked good early in the season, conference play ended up revealing the inexperience in a very young side.

The good news is that these key pieces, including conference freshman of the year and 16-goal scorer Evelyne Viens, come back next year. And this season isn’t necessarily over, either. Double-digit wins are generally accepted to be the magic number to make the NCAA tournament, and the Bulls finished the season 12-4-3. However, their easy non-conference schedule may lead the selection committee to view USF’s schedule as artificially inflated. The tournament selection show is Monday at 7:00 p.m.