By Terrence Hinds, Staff Writer

Published in print Nov. 5, 2014

The UNCG Women’s Soccer team went down in heartbreaking fashion against East Tennessee State University in the Southern Conference quarterfinals this past Sunday.

The team lost in overtime 3-2 after ETSU senior Hannah Short scored the game-winning goal off of a header after she received a cross from her teammate Sarah Zadrazil.

It was a crushing manner to end the season as the Blue and Gold had the led late in the second half, but allowed ETSU to score with four minutes left in regulation.

Although the UNCG was only able to muster four shots on goal the entire game, the Blue and Gold were able to convert their limited attempts into points.

The team made half of their attempts on Sunday afternoon. Candice Forbes was the first to put the ball in the back of the net at the 30 minute mark of the game.

Junior Chesney White received the assist on the play after she made a long pass to her fellow teammate. With the pass, Forbes was able to control the deep ball and fired it into the back of the net.

The Spartans spent the rest of the first half defending their goal. Goalie Chloe Buehler played an incredible game for the final game of the year. The redshirt freshman made saves reminiscent of Team USA’s goalie Tim Howard’s round of 16 performance against Belgium in this past World Cup .

In her amazing play, one of her stops included stopping a penalty attempt from ETSU senior Emilee Engelhaupt.

In the second half, the Buccaneers continued to put the pressure on UNCG’s defense, but Buehler continued to make a couple more saves early on. In the 48th minute, Bucs midfielder Molly Collinson had a chance inside the box but Buehler made the save.

A minute later, Hannah Short had a header chance that was also turned away by Buehler.

Unfortunately, the Spartans defensive wall eventually fell through following a foul just outside the box.

Short fired a shot into the right corner to tie the game at 1-1 giving her a conference single season record of 26 goals.

UNCG answered the bell as we have seem them do time and time again this season though.

In the 77 minute, junior Zoe Fishman found sophomore Katelyn Mountjoy who took a touch on the ball then proceeded to fire a strike into the left corner of the goal to give UNCG the 2-1 lead.

In the 86 minute, the Buccaneers were able to tie the game late in regulation off of a corner that was kicked around inside the box before Summer Peterson tapped it into the back of the net for the equalizer.

If the Spartans could have cleaned up their defense late in the match, they could have moved on to the semi-finals, a place they have not been able to get to in the last four years.

Though Buehler had a strong game, UNCG’s defense let the team down late. Able to withstand the Bucs barrage for most of the game, the Spartans slowly and eventually fell to the offensive pressure. ETSU had a total of 26 shots on goal, including the one in overtime to seal the game.

The Spartans end their season with a record of 9-8-3.

Though their last match was close, it feels as though the team underachieved for the talent that was on the roster.

Yet, this can probably be credited to learning a different system under first year UNCG head coach Michael Coll that took time early in the season.

For women’s soccer, there should be a lot of optimism around the program for next year though as the team will be returning a collection of starters from this  season. The team fought hard this year but came up just short in the end. The team has nothing to be ashamed of following the transition of a new coach and system.