Nov. 2, 2017
Las Vegas, Nev. ---- The regular season champion and #1-seed San Jose State women's soccer team has been knocked out of the Mountain West Tournament by New Mexico via penalty kicks. The Spartans (12-5-2) and Lobos (12-7-2) played to the end of double-overtime tied, 2-2, and New Mexico prevailed in PK's, 5-3.
"It's never easy to lose, especially after having such a remarkable season," said Spartans' head coach Lauren Hanson. "We showed the conference that we were the most consistent team and unfortunately this was a game where New Mexico played very well. We matched them, and then it went to penalty kicks. From there you have no control."
Both teams found the back of the net with their first three penalty kicks. In order: Gabriela Herrera, Dorthe Hoppius and Gabriella Hurtado buried their shots for the Spartans. The Mountain West Newcomer of the Year Jamilecxth Becerra's shot was blocked by UNM keeper Emily Johnson. Then Amelia Bierle blasted the fifth and clinching PK past SJSU keeper Paige Simoneau.
The Lobos have now advanced out of the quarterfinal and the semifinal stages by way of penalty kicks and will face San Diego State on Saturday in the MW Tournament title match.
San Jose State trailed in the match, 1-0, and , 2-1, but came back both times. After surrendering the first goal of the match in the fifth minute, the Spartans got an equalizer from Yaritza Arista in the 17th minute. Arista picked up a loose ball right at the top of the box and shot one into the top left corner of the goal.
New Mexico broke through again in the 33rd minute off of Jessica Nelson's insanely long flip-throw from the right sideline. Her heave went through the feet of a scrum of player in front of the net, bounced off the post, and was cleaned up by Casey Murphy to make it 2-1 UNM lead.
It took less than a minute for the Spartans to strike coming out of the halftime locker room. A short clear following an SJSU corner kick set up Kristen Amarikwa who took a shot in traffic. Her shot tipped off of Hoppius and onto the foot of Sabrina Miller who poked it in for her first goal of the year.
"It shows our character," Hanson said. "This team has fought all year long. Sometimes you have a little luck and sometimes you don't. Tonight we didn't and it's unfortunate."
The two teams battled through two very physical overtime periods before going to penalty kicks. As the final overtime minute ticked off, the nostalgia of the 2015 Mountain West Tournament began to kick in. Just like two years ago the Spartans and Lobos met in the semis and went to penalty kicks. However, this time it was New Mexico which prevailed in the end and is through to the final.