In recovering from a bitter loss, one must start with the good.
For 2017, the South Carolina women's soccer team finished 19-3-1 and took its second straight SEC regular-season title with a 9-0-1 conference mark.Twelve of the team's 19 wins came in consecutive matches between Aug. 27 and Oct. 19, and South Carolina's opponents failed to score any goals on 16 of 23 occasions.
Undoubtedly, there were weak spots: a last-minute draw with conference win-less Georgia on Oct. 22, followed by a first-round upset to Arkansas in the first round of the SEC tournament nine days later. On the surface, either loss could expose a team incapable of heading very far in the NCAA Tournament.
But any such team ceased to show up after Oct. 31 as South Carolina netted seven goals and surrendered none in the four games that preceded the Final Four matchup with Stanford in Orlando on Friday.
For now, any talk of that is hard to find and washed out by South Carolina's 2-0 loss to Stanford in the first trip to the NCAA Tournament Women's College Cup in program history.
"Obviously no one wants to be sitting here saying that the season is over, but I couldn’t be more proud of this group and this team," head coach Shelley Smith said. "We told these players to not hang their head, they’ve done amazing things for our program, they've accomplished great things."
When the loss heals, it will yield to this fact: 22 of South Carolina's 28 players are underclassmen, and many of them play soccer in a way that is worthy of players much more experienced.
Minus a 35-minute, shot-free relief appearance by Alexis McMullen against Alabama State, Mikayla Krzeczowski kept South Carolina's net clean for more than 406 consecutive minutes of play through Friday night.Still a sophomore, she took home Second Team All-SEC honors and two SEC Defensive Player of the Week awards in 2017. She'll still be patrolling the Gamecock goal line next year, should South Carolina require another four-game shutout streak in the 2018 tournament.
Similar to Krzeczowski, Elexa Bahr and Grace Fisk are sophomores, while Ryan Gareis, Luciana Zullo and Bianca Galassini are freshmen. These five underclassmen combined for 23 goals and six assists in 2017 and are unlikely to be any less lethal behind the ball next August, or the one after that.
Any hope for the future of the program can be found by replaying Friday's game and looking directly across the field. Stanford dressed two seniors Friday and started one, and suffered not a bit for it. While Cardinal coach Paul Ratcliffe has seen six College Cups in his time with the program, only his seniors and redshirt juniors had seen any Final Four action before this weekend — a semifinal loss to Florida State in 2014.
Behind this experience, the Gamecocks will return as a seasoned postseason team in 2018 that has played on the biggest stage in collegiate soccer. The 2017 College Cup experience combined with the team's youth shows there is no reason to hold out hope for a tournament run next year.
For now, the team is reflecting on the careers of the seniors who won't be returning to Stone Stadium next fall.
Lindsey Lane's late-season scoring spree will be missed, as will Anna Conklin's command of the backfield and Dominique Babbitt's play up the middle. Everything Lauren Jankowski and Meaghan Carrigan brought to the table is now gone, never to return in the combination that allowed this team to mesh as it did.
And what about the SEC Offensive Player of the Year?
Savannah McCaskill ranks third in program history in career goals and points and second in career assists for South Carolina -- both incredible statistics alone.
But the records she set matter even more when considering the numerous do-or-die games the Gamecocks faced these past four seasons.
McCaskill wrapped up her collegiate career Friday night tied with Chelsea Drennan and Kayla Grimsley for the program lead in game-winning assists, and she owns the standalone record for game-winning goals with 17. She netted both South Carolina goals in a 2-1 win over Texas A&M in last year's SEC tournament quarterfinal, setting South Carolina's record for points in a conference tournament game.
And in a move that will never show itself on any scoreboard but nonetheless helps define McCaskill as one of the finest South Carolina athletes in recent memory, she had this to say just minutes after Friday's heartbreaking loss:
"I definitely couldn't have dreamed of being at a better place. I wouldn't have chosen a different school, wouldn't have chosen a different program, a different group of girls."
McCaskill as a player might be gone, but her fighting spirit is unlikely to leave this team for a while.