The Texas State soccer (12-5-2, 6-3-1 Sun Belt Conference) season will come to an end following a 1-0 loss to James Madison University (11-3-5, 6-1-3 Sun Belt Conference) in Wednesday’s quarterfinal Sun Belt tournament.
The Bobcats came in ranked as the fifth seed in the tournament while JMU was ranked fourth.
Before this game, the two teams have only seen each other once; a regular season match where JMU took a 3-1 victory in San Marcos.
This win-or-go-home game was the first one played in the tournament for the Bobcats where the winner would take on No. 8 Georgia State in the semi-finals.
The game was a defensive matchup where both teams were able to get decent looks while holding a strong back line.
The lone goal came 12 minutes into the second half when James Madison sophomore forward Amanda Attanasi brought down a cross and buried one on the ground to the right post from inside the box, bringing the score 1-0.
The first part of the half featured very good possession and ball movement for JMU while Texas State struggled to create opportunities and maintain possession.
As the half went on the Bobcats began limiting turnovers and putting up shots, which continued until the end of the half.
About 34 minutes into the half, sophomore goalkeeper Katelyn Chrisman took an alarming blow to the face after leaving her line to save what would have been the first goal of the game. After a long delay and a careful examination by the trainers, she was able to return to the game with just a little bit of swelling in her eye.
She followed this up with a last-minute save on the half on a great look from JMU from just outside the box.
Like many games this year the Bobcats were outmatched in the second half due to the lack of halftime adjustments.
This showed as early in the second half JMU got a decent look which made it their 14^th shot of the match to Texas State’s three.
JMU’s increased pressure and pace would result in a goal 12 minutes into the half by Attanasi.
For the rest of the game, Texas State was on its heels struggling to clear the ball and deal with the now withered attack from James Madison as the Dukes continued to play keep away.
The only real threatening look came with just 12 minutes left to play in the half when the Bobcats found a shot from outside the box that was ultimately saved by redshirt freshmen Alexandra Blom, who before the game was awarded the Sun Belt Conference Goalkeeper of the year award after leading the conference in average goals allowed.
This game concludes the Bobcat’s season, however with many promising young stars on the roster, they remain optimistic about the following seasons.