The Utes sealed their place in the postseason with a conference win Saturday.
The women’s soccer team (8-8-2, 3-2-1 MWC) came from behind to win a 2-1 thriller in Wyoming. It was the first come-from-behind victory Utah had all season.
“I’m really pleased with the way we battled back after falling behind today,” said head coach Rich Manning. “Playing in difficult conditions against a very good Wyoming team in their last home game, when we fell behind it would have been easy to drop our heads and go home with a tough loss. But we hung in there and as many times as we have tried this year, we finally broke through and got a comeback victory. That’s probably the most exciting thing to come out of today’s game8212;seeing the team show lot of character and break through.”
The first half was closely contested and physical, and each team was whistled for five fouls. Wyoming put two shots on goal, and the Utes had one look at the net, but both teams came up short and went into halftime 0-0.
In the 57th minute of the game, Wyoming took the lead when Nicole Rice finished a breakaway run and put the ball in the back of the net. Courtney Merkle and Carmen Blume assisted on the play.
The Utes did not quit and continued moving the ball and getting quality looks.
Utah got an equalizer in the 62nd minute when junior forward Lauren Hair was set up nicely by freshman midfielder Allie Wisner, then pushed the ball past the goalkeeper from 12 yards out. It was Hair’s third goal on the season.
After the goal, the teams went back and forth, but neither could break the tie. The Utes were 10 minutes away from playing in their fifth overtime game of the season, when, in the 79th minute, senior midfielder Kelly Isleib scored her seventh goal of the season to put the Utes up 2-1.
“Going into halftime, we felt pretty good about the way we were playing,” said Wyoming head coach Danny Sanchez. “Then, we got a real nice goal and took the lead early in the second half. For whatever reason, after that goal, we seemed to relax, and you can’t do that against a team like Utah. You can’t give dangerous players like the ones they have any room, which is what we did. They responded with two goals.”
Freshman defender Natalie Young set Isleib up, and Isleib drilled a laser from 35 yards out. It was her third game-winning goal on the season.
“We scored two fantastic goals in this game,” Manning said. “Lauren showed a lot of composure in front of goal, and Kelly hit a bomb. This win gives us confidence that we can carry forward into our last two games of the regular season.”
With the victory, the Utes clinched a berth in the Mountain West Conference Tournament, which begins Nov. 4 in Provo.
Only six of the eight teams in the MWC made the tournament. The Utes will make their 11th consecutive trip this season.
Utah will play at Oklahoma State on Thursday and then wrap up the regular season at home against Air Force on Saturday.
Lennie Mahler/The Daily Utah ChronicleLauren Hair scored in the 62nd minute to tie the game against Wyoming at one. Kelly Isleib also scored, giving the Utes a 2-1 win and a berth in the Mountain West Conference Tournament.