The team ended its season with a 7-0 loss to Charlotte Sunday.
The women’s soccer team looked to put a disappointing season behind it and end the year on a high note by winning the final game of the season. But the Charlotte 49ers had other plans.
Charlotte spoiled Temple’s Senior Day on Sunday by shutting out the Owls, 7-0. Six different 49ers scored goals in their rout of Temple, including two goals by 49ers senior midfielder Macky Wingo.
The Owls played catch-up from the get-go when Charlotte struck first almost instantly. Wingo put the ball in the back of the net just one minute, 15 seconds into the game. The 49ers tallied two more goals at the eight- and 32-minute marks of the first half. By halftime, Temple was already looking at a 3-0 deficit, and the team failed to turn the game around in the second half. Charlotte outshot Temple, 24-8, in what was an extremely disappointing end to Senior Day.
Temple sent off a group that consisted of nine seniors and one junior. Seniors Julia Adden, Brianna Costello, Meridith Crowell, Kelly Diviny, Stephanie Ferretti, Stephanie Kwiatkowski, Liz Roper, Sara Scheid, Kara Williams and junior Allicia Yurkovic played in their Cherry and White uniforms for the last time.
Yurkovic will be leaving the team to enroll in nursing school.
“I’m disappointed because we never lost on Senior Day until today,” junior forward Niki Conn said. “We all wanted to send them off with a victory, but I’m very happy for them. They made a great group of friends.”
The Owls ended their season with an overall record of 6-12-1 and went just 1-7-1 in Atlantic Ten Conference play. Their victories included wins over Howard, Hartford, East Tennessee State, Vermont, Wagner and Rhode Island.
“It was a disappointing season if you look at the record and the expectations coming in,” coach David Jones said.
Jones was not discouraged by the effort his players put into the 2010 campaign, even if their record does not show it.
“I wasn’t at all disappointed in the effort the girls put out and how hard the girls fought,” Jones said. “We were very competitive. We just couldn’t seem to catch a break in a lot of close games.”
“We played pretty well. At times we were unlucky because we lost a lot of games 1-0 or 2-1. We tried hard and gave it our all every game,” Conn added.
Conn proved to be one of the lone bright spots for the women’s soccer team this year after the 2009 honorable mention All-Conference star turned in her best statistical season yet. After scoring two goals against Rhode Island on Oct. 24, Conn became the first Owl in 10 years to score 10 goals in a season, a mark which ranks third all-time in school history. The last Temple player to accomplish that feat was Brandi Wright in 2000. Conn also tied Rachel Bentz for the third-most points in a single season with 24.
“She really committed herself to getting fit during the summer and came back in the best shape of her life,” Jones said. “She proved to be one of the best players in the A-10.”
“I had a lot of help,” Conn added. “My teammates took a lot of the pressure off of me because they were playing so well around me. The whole team was behind one another.”
The Owls are off until next August, when a fresh season will start with new goals and higher expectations.
As for the 2011 season, Jones said he believes the team will improve and bounce back from its losing season.
“We have a good core group of kids coming back and some kids with good experience,” Jones said. “The sophomore and junior class have great experience. When the injured kids get healthy, that will answer a lot of questions about who is going to step up and be productive.”
Tyler Sablich can be reached at tyler.sablich@temple.edu.
I like senior days 🙂