Women’s Soccer
UCF shut out rival USF in a match played on Friday that earned the Knights their ninth straight win.
The first strike of the game came in the nineteenth minute as the USF defense mistakenly cleared the ball in their own goal, putting the Knights up one to nothing. It was UCF (12-2-0, 5-0-0 AAC) who continued the scoring when senior forward Ashley Spivey put in a goal in the fortieth minute, her fifth of the season. Pre-season first team all-conference Tatiana Coleman would add one more to the scoreboard before the second half.
“USF always comes out really hard against us, all we can do is respect that and play our game,” said Coleman. “They came out at us pretty hard so credit to them, respect to them, but I think we pushed through it and found ways to get around, and that’s how we ended up on top.”
Tatiana Coleman earned her ninth straight scoring match against USF (5-5-4, 2-1-2 AAC), tying a UCF record made by Amy Jones in her 1995 season, according to UCFKnights.com. Knights’ goalkeeper Connie Organ would not be left out as the senior tied her career high record in saves, with six made throughout the game.
“For us to just win games is not enough, we’re always looking to grow and improve,” said head coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydak after the game. “We really did a good job defensively of focusing for forty-five minutes. For us it’s always having that championship mentality and that’s really what I’m proud of.”
The Knights will look to continue their winning streak when they play against Temple Thursday, October 16th, in Pennsylvania.
Men’s Soccer
A 3-2 overtime loss against Memphis ended the three game tie streak the men’s team faced since the start of their American Athletic Conference matches.
UCF held a strong 2-0 lead for the first seventy-five minutes, with Hadji Barry scoring in the twenty-second minute and Romario Williams scoring in the thirty-sixth minute.
It was when the Tigers’ offense put up two goals nearing the end of the second half when they came back and equalized the game. Overtime would follow, leaving both teams in a pivotal situation, nostalgic of when they last met, where their game played into overtime and ended in a 1-1 tie.
Desperate to claim victory, the Knights (1-6-4, 0-1-3 AAC) and Tigers (6-4-2, 1-2-1 AAC) both fought for the game-winner, but it would be Memphis who would put one in the back of the net just one minute before the end of the first overtime, giving the Tennessee based team their first conference win.
The men’s team will continue conference play Wednesday, October 15th, against Florida International at 7pm ET in Miami.
