Lady Tigers fall 1-0 at national tourney, anxiously await their fate

Playing for the second time in less than 24 hours, the No. 11-seeded Cowley College women's soccer team battled hard before running out of gas in the second half of its game against No. 7-seed Salt Lake Community College in the Tigers' second game at the NJCAA Division I Women's National Soccer Championships played Monday afternoon at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, KS.

Salt Lake (UT) was playing its first game of the tournament, while Cowley was playing a day after knocking off second-seeded Seminole State College (OK) by a score of 4-1.

The Bruins had allowed only four goals over their previous 13 games, while going 12-1 over that span. Opponents continued to find goals hard to come by as the teams battled to a 0-0 halftime tie.

Cowley goalkeeper Kanon Dehama made two fine saves in the final minute of the half and each team had only two shots on goal in the opening half.

However, it would not take long for Salt Lake to break through in the second half as a miscue in the Tigers' back half of the field led to the Bruins' Anna Finegar scoring the game's first goal with 41:14 left to play.

Two minutes later, Cowley's Sthefany da Silva was whistled for a red card, forcing the Lady Tigers to play a person short over the final 39 minutes.

The man advantage allowed Salt Lake to play keep away with the ball for the majority of the half, still, Cowley continued to fight and had a corner kick with three minutes left get headed just over the goal.

Cowley would get another corner kick in the final 10 seconds that was saved by Bruin goalkeeper Aliyah Garrett to preserve the 1-0 win.

Cowley falls to 13-4-4 on the season, while Salt Lake improves to 16-2.

"I am proud of how resilient our team was despite playing a man down and playing our second game in 24 hours," Cowley head coach Roberto dos Santos said.

For Cowley to advance out of Pool B and moves on to the semifinals of the national tournament they will need Seminole State to defeat Salt Lake by two or fewer goals when the team's face off against each other on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m.

The winner of Pool B will play Thursday at 10 a.m. against a yet to be determined opponent.

"Our ladies are disappointed because they always want to win, but they still have hopes alive to be playing in the tournament," dos Santos said.