South Carolina Women’s Soccer Advances To NCAA Quarterfinals; Men’s Soccer Comes up Short

It was opposite results for the South Carolina men’s and women’s soccer teams this past weekend in the NCAA tournament. While the top-seeded women beat BYU 1-0 on Saturday to advance to a quarterfinal matchup against perennial power UNC, the men lost a 2-1 heartbreaker to Clemson as their season came to a disappointing end.

The women’s team came into this game against #4 seeded BYU after winning the previous game over Colorado at the hands of a penalty kick. This contest had more of the same result. BYU was limited in shots on goal, while Carolina for the second straight game had trouble finding the back of the net. However, in the 69th minute junior Savannah McCaskill was brought down in the box; senior Chelsea Drennan nailed the penalty kick to give the Gamecocks the lead (1-0). Mikayla Krzeczowski notched her 14th shutout (2nd consecutive) as South Carolina held BYU to only 3 shots.

Up Next: The Gamecocks will host the #2 seeded North Carolina Tar Heels at Stone Stadium on Friday at 6 PM in a quarterfinal matchup. South Carolina defeated UNC in the 2014 tournament’s third round. South Carolina will clinch their first-ever Women’s College Cup berth with a victory.

The men’s team headed into tonight’s game against Clemson trying to avenge a 3-2 loss in the season opener. It was a scoreless lock in the first half; both teams combined for 13 shots and 12 corners. The first huge mishap happened in the 73rd minute when a Clemson player knocked an Ive Burnett ball into his own netting. Goalkeeper William Pyle had a number of spectacular saves, but Alex Happi capitalized on a through ball from Iman Mafi in the 86th minute to equalize for Clemson. In the 93rd minute, Alex Happi found the back of the net once again as he hit the game winner in overtime. Clemson defeated South Carolina 2-1, ending their season. The Gamecocks posted an 11-8-1 record; sophomore forward Bjorn Gudjonsson led the team with 8 goals, senior midfielder Danny Deakin had a team-high 6 assists.

Clemson advances to take on the #14 national seed Albany in the third round.