By Gian Navas/Staff Writer
After the dust had settled of the devastating 4-1 loss to the University of North Texas, the Panthers should search for perspective.
No one on this team should or is content with a first round exit, but it’s a miracle that they got there to begin. After a loss to Charlotte University in late September the Panthers fell to lowly 2-7-0 record.
That was it. It was over, the season was over. They were failures. But no, they got up and like the prototypical American sports triumph story, they fought. They fought to an upset win against conference leading University of Birmingham, they fought to close the season 5-3-0, and they fought to a number one seed in the conference for the majority of their run.
It wasn’t until the regular season finale against Marshall University that they relinquished their top spot in the eastern division of Conference-USA.
Sometimes words don’t give moments justice. It’s why we have music, art, dance and even sports. They take the words right out of your mouth and give it life, give it true expression. Watching the Panther team go from nothing to something is certainly something you had to see to feel.
And then it all culminated in Houston, Texas with the C-USA championship tournament. The Panthers faced the most explosive offense in C-USA, leading nearly every statistical offensive category. They might have been in over their heads.
When North Texas took a 2-0 in the 36th minute, again all seemed lost. All seemed over, then 20 minutes later, FIU scores. We’re back on.
With a 2-1 score and all the momentum going the Panthers way, it surely felt it was a microcosm of their roller coaster season. When all doubted, when it seemed hopeless, they found a way. Only this time, North Texas shut the door on any story book ending. They answered with two goals in the final minutes of the game, and that was it.
FIU’s magic had run out and allowed four goals to the most potent offensive team in the conference. Finally something in the Panthers season made sense. It just came at the worst time.
“They were a special group,” said Coach Thomas Chestnutt. “We had a lot of success with them and I know they’ll do great things in the future.”
It was a special group indeed, and one that should be celebrated despite a loss. In sports often times do we look at what went wrong instead of what went right.
It’s easy to point to the season finale against Marshall and criticize the Panthers for not winning a game they needed to have an automatic berth to the second round of the tournament. Or to spend the offseason questioning the drastic move at goal keeper from stud redshirt Junior Paula Zuluaga, which Coach Chesttnut declined to comment on.
These women deserve a standing ovation for all they did right. It’s what America loves, an underdog success story. The tale of a group of girls who didn’t quit, who never faltered, and that learned from their past failures.
It should be noted that after the loss to Charlotte, FIU drastically boosted all the stats they were bad at. Scoring which was 2.2 goals in their final eight games, and defense with only allowing 1.5 goals in their final eight games.
As the Panthers take the long flight back to South Florida from Texas they should be celebrating. For a season that almost never was. For the seniors class that had the third-winning-est run in the history of FIU women’s soccer with 42 wins. And for the story they wrote.
They gave meaning and expression to the thousands of words written about them by only kicking a soccer ball. It’s extraordinary. And as the curtain falls on the improbable season of the FIU women’s soccer team, we should all rise and give them the standing ovation they deserve.
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