Kennesaw State’s soccer season came to a close last week as the Owls lost to North Alabama 2-1 in the quarterfinals of the Atlantic Sun Conference playoffs on Friday, Oct. 26.
This season, the Owls recorded their second-best win total in school history, finishing the year with a 12-6-1 record. Despite building up their successful record, the Owls did not make it as far into the playoffs as they could have, given their record and a third-place finish in the conference.
North Alabama scored first on 28 minutes through a goal from Anna Bove that was assisted by Kylie Huey. The next goal came from North Alabama once again as Huey scored and was assisted by Bove at the hour mark.
Down two goals with 30 minutes remaining, Erin Harris cut the deficit in half for KSU after scoring from a counter-attack nearly a minute after North Alabama’s second goal. The Owls then had the rest of the match to try and tie the score, but were stymied by the Lions and came up short.
KSU out-shot North Alabama 16-13 but were ultimately unable to make enough of those shots count.
“I am proud of my team,” head coach Benji Walton said. “Soccer can be a tough game sometimes and these ladies left it all out on the field, and that is all I can ask of them. Congratulations to North Alabama on a well-played game. I wish them well moving forward.”
Although the team made an early exit in the postseason this year, the future is bright for the young team. Out of all 30 players on the roster, only seniors Carly Pressgrove and Kaitlyn Sterling will be leaving. Neither of these seniors started in the final game which means that all of the starters will return next season.
During their best season in 11 years, KSU had two four-game winning streaks and had several players regularly contributing to the team’s accomplishments. Leading the way offensively this season was Harris, who had six goals and six assists, while Jenna Vollrath also scored six times.
The defense was highlighted by a consistent group of five players who each logged over a thousand minutes during the season, while goalkeeper Tiffany Sornpao had 95 saves on the season to keep the Owls in many matches.
Next season, Walton will head into his fourth season as the team’s head coach and will be looking to lead the Owls to the top of the ASUN Conference.
