Richard Gibson / Sports Director
The FIU Women’s soccer team’s season has come to a crashing end after an 0-3 shutout loss in Boca Raton against the Florida Atlantic Owls on Friday, April 9th.
The Panthers finished their season with a 3-9 overall record, and a 1-5 conference record. They were 2-2 at home and 1-7 on the road, and rank sixth out of the seven teams in Conference USA’s Eastern Division.
It’s another loss in a historically subpar matchup for FIU dating back to 2004. In their 15 meetings, the Owls have won 10 of them, including their last six matches. The Panther’s last win in the series dates back to 2013.
FIU struggled to get an offensive rhythm going from the beginning of the match, and FAU took advantage, taking only four minutes to find a clearing into FIU’s side of the field and immediately score, giving them an early 0-1 lead.
The next 20 minutes were back and forth between both schools, with neither team being able to create momentum beyond midfield. Both squads cancelled each other out by clearing the ball every time it entered their half.
In the 25th minute, however, FAU quickly broke through the FIU defense and scored their second goal of the match. Despite taking two shots in the first half, coming from midfielder Laura Chavez and forward Courtney Walker, the Panthers would have no luck, being down 2-0 at halftime.
The second half saw little improvement as FIU failed to register a shot. FAU dominated the half with four shots at goal before breaking free once again and landing their third goal in the 81st minute, sealing a 3-0 shutout loss for the Panthers.
FIU recorded four saves during the match, with goalkeeper Kiera Gibson committing three of them. FAU only needed to save the ball once in the entire game. The Panthers faced nine fouls to the Owls 11.
FIU will not be participating in the Conference USA Women’s Soccer Tournament for the tenth straight year due to their record and conference standings.. The last time FIU was in a conference tournament was in 2011 when they were in the Sun Belt.
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