Arizona Soccer comes up short in their upset bid of No. 18 Penn State

STANFORD, CA – It was a tough evening for the Arizona Soccer team, as the Wildcats came up short in their upset bid of No. 18 Penn State.

Making their third-straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, the Arizona Soccer team advanced to the second round last week after their victory over TCU, to take on No. 18 Penn State.

With the school and community behind them, the Wildcats were looking to carry that momentum into their game against the Nittany Lions on Friday, and from the start it was a good one!

Arizona Wildcats

With much of the first half being scoreless, Arizona would finally break this one open, when sophomore midfielder Grace Santos would find the back of the net on an assist from Hannah Clifford to make it 1-0 at the 38-minute mark!

Luckily, Arizona was able to hang on in the first half, holding on to the 1-0 lead at the break!

Carrying momentum from their first half lead, Arizona would get to work quickly in the second half, opening their lead to two goals when Iyana Zimmerman would get one past the keeper on an unassisted goal, making it 2-0 just before the 50-minute mark.

With the game steadily in hand, that’s when Penn State would unfortunately climb back into this one.

The Nittany Lions would finally find the net at the 57th-minute, to break the shut out, and just four minutes later, Penn State would score again to even the game at 2-2.

Now tied and with quite the battle on their hands, Arizona would be in store for a heck of a fight.

After surrendering the 2-2 goal, the Wildcats would come right back, once again finding the net, this time at the 68th-minute mark to break the tie, and regain the lead at 3-2, when Jill Aguilera scored on an unassisted goal.

However, the Nittany Lions wouldn’t give up. Leading 3-2 in the waning moments of the game, Penn State would score in moments of desperation, tying this one at 3-3 in the 87th-minute, pushing this one into overtime.

Now in sudden death, Arizona would need to respond in a big way if they were to come away victorious.

Knotted at 3-3, it was the Nittany Lions who would strike in this, scoring in the 97th-minute of the game to officially end it and deliver the heartbreaking, 4-3 loss to Arizona.

And for the third-straight season, the Wildcats have lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

With the loss, Arizona falls to 12-7-1 on the year and are officially eliminated from the Tournament.

At Zona Zealots, we’re certainly disheartened by the loss, but are still proud of the way the Wildcats competed against Penn State and battled this season! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!