Women’s Soccer Advances With Win Over UConn

Wednesday, November 1

Orlando, Fla.

6:00 PM

University of Memphis

11-5-3

UConn

7-9-3

Connecticut

Memphis

Photo by: Brad Helton, American Athletic Conference

Nov 01, 2017 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Tigers will face top-ranked UCF in semifinals Friday

ORLANDO, Fla. – The No. 4-seeded Memphis Tigers opened the 2017 American Athletic Conference Tournament with a 3-1 victory over UConn in the quarterfinals Wednesday evening.

The victory improves the Tigers to 11-5-3 overall and advances Memphis to the semifinal match against No. 1-seeded UCF Friday evening. Memphis improved its unbeaten streak to six with the victory.

"We were pleased to get a win," said head coach Brooks Monaghan. "I thought we played well. I thought it was a team effort tonight. We used several different players with key minutes played. I thought it was a collective win."

In the 10^th minute of the match, Mikayla Morton ignited the Memphis offense with her ninth goal of the season. Morton's one touch to the back of the net was the finishing touches to a cross by Elizabeth Woerner. Sydney Kingston started the Memphis attack with a long serve to Woerner down the right side.

The score remained 1-0 through the remainder of the first half. Memphis outshot the Huskies 11-7 in the first 45 minutes and goalkeeper Elizabeth Moberg collected four saves.

Under 10 minutes into the second half, the Tigers struck again. This time, Woerner took a shot by Catherine Levasseur that was deflected off of the right post and placed it in the back of the net. It was Woerner's 11^th goal of the season.

A minute later, Morton capitalized again. A foul in the box committed by UConn resulted in a Memphis penalty kick and Morton converted. It was the third time this season Morton successfully converted a penalty kick.

UConn attempted to claw its way back into the match and in the 77^th minute, struck on a free kick outside the box. That would be the only score the Tiger defense would give up.

The Tigers finished the match with 18 shots to UConn's 17 and six total corner kicks. Moberg ended with seven saves in the victory. This was Morton's second multi-goal match this year.

"We know we're facing the No. 7 team in the country and we know what happened last time (in reference to UCF) and there are no issues getting up for that game," added Monaghan. "We're going to have to play our best. Tonight was a very good performance but we're going to have to have a great performance come Friday."

Memphis will now take on UCF in the semifinal round Friday evening at 6 p.m. CT. The American Digital Network will broadcast the match for free and the link can be found at www.gotigersgo.com. For more information on the Memphis women's soccer team, follow the Tigers on Facebook at /MemphisWSoccer and on Twitter and Instagram at @MemphisWSoccer.