Tech soccer falls short in quest for OVC tournament

The Tech soccer team’s hopes for a playoff appearance were crushed last weekend when they were swept in a 5-1 loss against Southeastern Missouri State University and a 6-0 loss at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
The Golden Eagles were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs after Friday’s loss to the Redhawks of Southeastern Missouri.
“It was hard to watch as the time finally ticked down,” said freshman goal keeper Jordan Brown.
Friday’s game was the last home game of the season, but it did not go as the Golden Eagles had planned.
The first half was fairly quiet with Southeast Missouri having just a 1-0 lead at the break on Torey Byrd’s goal at 32:33.
However, the Redhawks came out hot in the second half scoring two more goals within the first four minutes of the new half.
Their second goal was scored at 47:54 and the third came just 26 seconds later at 48:20 to give the Redhawks a 3-0 lead.
“Once SEMO started scoring, they were on fire,” said Tech midfielder Emily Homan. “As much as we tried to get control of the game, it just wasn’t clicking for us.”
Tech scored their lone goal of the game when senior midfielder Jacquie Watkins scored at 64:49 on a pass from senior midfielder Kris Cambron.
The Redhawks would go on to add another goal at 66:52 and one more at 88:46 to polish off the 5-1 conference victory.
With Friday’s loss to Southeast Missouri fresh on their minds, the Golden Eagles had one other tough match ahead of them Sunday afternoon at the home of the Ohio Valley Conference’s No. 1 team, UT-Martin.
“We had to go into Sunday’s game with the same mentality that we would any other game,” said Brown. “The fact that we were already eliminated didn’t mean that we wanted to win any less.”
However, the defending OVC Champion Skyhawks did not leave that up to the Golden Eagles.
The game was highlighted by Skyhawk forward, Abi Sanvee scoring her first career hat trick in Sunday’s match.
Sanvee scored the first two goals of the game for Martin at 8:06 and 15:12 followed by two other goals from her teammates at 33:32 and 42:41 to give the Skyhawks a commanding 4-0 lead at halftime.
The Skyhawks picked up in the second half right where they left off, scoring again at 51:36 to put the Golden Eagles down 5-0.
Savnee racked up her third goal of the game to complete the hat trick at 66:20 and end the scoring spree for the Skyhawks.
The score remained the same for the last 24 minutes ending the Golden Eagles’ 2012 season with the bitter taste of a 6-0 loss on their tongues.
“The difference between us and Martin was that they could find the back of the net,” said Homan. “We created many chances but were just unlucky.”
Sunday’s loss not only ended the season but also the college playing careers of seniors Kris Cambron, Sarah Gawthrop, Andrea Meloff, Kerri Reid, Alex Stevenson, Julie Thompson and Jacquie Watkins.
Homan said that the underclassmen of the team are ready to put this season behind them and build off of it for next year.
“We really appreciate all of the support we got this season,” said Homan. “The fans really picked up on our Twitter and Facebook events, and we can’t wait to bring back some more action next year.”