Auburn, Ala. (EETV)- Auburn soccer was defeated by top-seeded Arkansas, 5-1, in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Orange Beach, Alabama on Thursday.
“Really proud of them,” Auburn coach Karen Hoppa said. “We had some freshmen have to step up into some important roles. They gave everything they had."
Auburn started this match on the front foot and nearly got the games opener in the fifth minute of the game. Sophomore Anna Haddock's shot from distance nearly crossed the goal line but the video review could not overturn the call of no-goal.
No. 5 Arkansas quickly gained momentum in the following minutes but the Auburn defense held. Sophomore keeper Maddie Prohaska made three saves in the span of three minutes to hold the Razorbacks down but with five minutes until halftime the Razorbacks finally broke the deadlock.
Arkansas kept the momentum from the late goal and scored in the opening minute of the second half to give them a 2-0 lead. Within a minute of Arkansas doubling the lead, Auburn freshman midfielder Sydnie Thibodaux scored her first career goal to bring Auburn within one.
The match was back and forth for the next 20 minutes and it wasn't until the 75th minute that Arkansas took a firm grip on the game. Arkansas' Taylor Malham scored to put the Razorbacks back up two.
Auburn threw numbers forward trying to cut back into the deficit but in the 81st minute, Arkansas struck once again. Two minutes later, they found the back of the net for the third time in ten minutes.
“Unfortunately, when we pushed all our numbers forwards, we gave up a couple counterattacks,” Hoppa said. “Arkansas is a top five team. That’s what they’ll do."
With the win, Arkansas moves onto the final of the SEC Tournament and will take on the Tennessee Volunteers. Auburn will wait to hear if they have qualified for the NCAA Tournament when the pairings are released on Monday.
"We’ll recover from this. We’ve got a great character group, we’ve got great leadership. We felt like we could do better and we know we’ll have an opportunity to do better in NCAAs," Hoppa said.
