Despite win, team hopes to improve on scoring opportunities
The South Carolina women’s soccer team continues to impress this season, defeating Alabama 2-1 with a dramatic come-from-behind victory last Friday.
The win was the team’s fifth in a row and it moves their record to 12-1-1 with a 5-1-0 conference record.
After giving up a goal to Alabama junior forward Pia Rijsdijk in the 23rd minute, the Gamecocks rallied with two unanswered goals from sophomore midfielder Stevi Parker (59th minute), and senior forward/midfielder Danielle Au with the winning goal in the 85th minute.
Although the Gamecocks had to rally from a one-goal deficit, South Carolina outshot Alabama 17-6.
Afterwards, Au was happy with the win, but was also frustrated with all of the missed opportunities.
“It’s really frustrating,” Au said. “I think we outshot them by a ton, which is just really frustrating because we had chances that we should have made and we missed them. We knew that we were due for goals in the second half.”
Head coach Shelley Smith was also frustrated with the missed opportunities, but was pleased they were able to come out on the winning end.
“It would have been very disappointing to be on the wrong side of that score line, because we played very well,” Smith said. “It’s one of those where you just keep at it, you get the goal you need, and that’s what they did. Fortunately, it worked out in our favor, and credit to our team to keep playing. We deserved that win, and glad we got it tonight.”
Even though Alabama (5-8) might not be one of the stronger teams on the Gamecocks’ schedule, Smith thought it was good for her team to get a victory after playing from behind.
“It’s a huge boost. We haven’t been in this situation often, so credit to them to come back and put themselves in a position to win the game,” Smith said. “We’ve been up goals and then tied, and found a way to win, and tonight we found a way to win to come back from being down a goal. That scenario showed what we’re capable of.”
Au also felt that a come-from-behind win was something the team needed to happen to them.
“I think it’s good to have stuff like this happen to us,” Au said. “We all know that we can come back, now it’s good that we’ve had a game like this, because anytime we go down, we can come back, which is good experience for our team.”
With their latest win, the Gamecocks are getting closer to the upcoming SEC Tournament, but Au said there is still work to be done.
“We just have to keep working hard. Sometimes stuff is off, but as long as we keep working hard and getting into it, I think we have a great team this year,” Au said.
The Gamecocks’ next game will be this Friday, when they travel to the “other Columbia” in the SEC to take on Missouri.