Nov. 4, 2017
Starkville, Miss. --- The San Jose State women's soccer team ended a wild weekend with a 1-0 loss on the road at Mississippi State. With the results, the Spartans' 2017 season comes to a close.
"Considering the way this week unfolded I am so proud of this team for the way they handled it," said SJSU head coach Lauren Hanson. "I'm glad we made this trip and this team finished the season strong with a well-played game against a tough SEC opponent."
San Jose State (12-6-2) left for the Mountain West Tournament in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning as the #1-seed after clinching the regular season championship. But the Spartans were knocked out the next night in the semifinal match by New Mexico in penalty kicks.
The narrative that the 2017 season was over quickly changed when the team agreed to pick up a game against Mississippi State on Friday morning. Instead of returning to San Jose, the Spartans went straight to Mississippi for Saturday's match.
Both teams were able to schedule the match after cancelling contests against opponents from Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.
San Jose State outshot Mississippi State 15-7. The Spartans put seven shots on goal, but all were saved by Bulldogs keeper Catalina Perez. Mississippi State only managed two shots on goal, but one of them made it past Gabriela Herrera who played in place of the injured Paige Simoneau.
The Bulldogs goal by MaKayla Waldner came in just the third minute of action.
From there the two teams went scoreless. The Spartans took eight corner kicks, while the Bulldogs never visited the corner flag. SJSU took 13 shots in the second half against Mississippi State's three.
"I'm really proud of the way the team battled in this match," Hanson said.
The Spartans' season comes to a close with 12 wins, the most since 2010.