On Sunday afternoon, University of Utah women’s soccer (2-1-1) welcomed No. 19 Clemson to Ute Field to play their first home match of the 2023 season. The Utes recently returned from a pair of away games back East, first drawing at North Carolina State and then toppling the College of Charleston. After returning home and overtaking Utah State in a 1-0 victory on Thursday, the Lady Utes faced another challenge with the arrival of the Clemson Tigers.
Heading into Sunday’s game, the Tigers sat at the same 2-1-0 record as the Utes, though they had racked up an impressive number of goals already. Last week’s match against Gardner Webb ended with a 9-0 victory — due in part to Samantha Meredith’s hat trick — while Thursday’s game against Utah Valley came in at 2-0.
As expected, the Tigers brought the intensity during the first 45 minutes. Clemson’s Hal Hershfelt opened the game with a foul in the third minute, giving the free kick to Utah’s Katie O’Kane. The two had almost equal opportunity for scoring through free kicks after a series of subsequent fouls, but it remained a scoreless draw at the end of the first half. Clemson had the one-up with three shots on goal compared to Utah’s two, though nothing was able to break through goalkeeper Kasey Wardle’s guard. O’Kane and Hershfelt each received a yellow card in the first period, both as a warning for persistent infringement.
With a somewhat frustrating first half behind them, the Utes entered the next 45 with renewed ambition. Brooke Hale, Lilliah Blum and Taliana Kaufusi subbed in at the half to refresh the roster, and before long the action was underway. Halfway into the 51st minute, Clemson’s Makenna Morris sank one into the left corner of the net with a tap of the left foot. The goal puts the Tigers at 12-0 in goals over their opponents thus far in the season, having only played four total games.
A foul on the Clemson side awarded Kaufusi a free kick just shy of the 61st minute, though the shot was off target. O’Kane was given a second yellow card in the 88th minute due to persistent infringement, and was subsequently ejected from the match only two minutes from full-time. The Tigers’ Mackenzie Duff received a yellow card soon after for unsporting behavior, and the match concluded with no stoppage time.
Although immense effort and difficulty were to be expected against the Clemson Tigers, the Utes walked away from this match with a frustrating loss. However, the Lady Utes have a shot at redemption with a match against in-state rivals Utah Valley, as the Wolverines join them at Ute Field on Wednesday, August 30. The match can be viewed on the Pac-12 Network at 6:00 p.m. (MDT).
