Texas State Soccer (8-3-6, 5-1-4 SBC) lost its first conference match of the season in the regular season finale against the James Madison Dukes (9-4-5, 5-2-3 SBC) 2-4 Wednesday evening at the Bobcat Soccer Complex.
James Madison showed it was the more dynamic side with its high press in the first 10 minutes of the match. In possession, the Dukes built up from the back with three center backs, giving them an extra player to push up and create overloads in the final third.
In the 11th minute, freshman goalkeeper Brooklyn Escobar was sent off after video review ruled that she handled the ball outside the box and denied James Madison a clear goalscoring opportunity, putting Texas State a man down.
As a result, the Dukes pushed even more numbers forward, which meant that Texas State had no choice but to put everyone behind the ball, with senior forward Mady Soumare serving as the only outlet in attack.
Despite being a man down, Texas State opened the scoring in the 18th minute thanks to Soumare, who received a pass at the top of the box, cutting to her right side with her left foot and slotting the ball into the bottom left corner.
A few minutes later, Soumare was brought down by a James Madison defender from the side, a play that could have been called as a denial of a clear goalscoring opportunity, but the play wasn’t reviewed.
The lack of an extra player came back to bite Texas State in the end, as the Dukes scored two unanswered goals and entered the halftime break with the lead. James Madison continued their rampage with a goal in the opening moments of the second half.
The Bobcats answered back with a penalty goal thanks to freshman midfielder Matsuri Tsutsui. However, the Dukes scored the dagger in the 56th minute, effectively ending the Bobcats’ hope of winning the Sun Belt regular season title.
“Some refereeing decisions didn’t go our way,” head coach Steve Holeman said after the match. “James Madison’s a very good team and to play them with ten players is a very difficult task. I thought we played very well that first 15 minutes of the game… They just eventually wore us down.”
The Bobcats enter the Sun Belt Women’s Soccer Championship bracket as the fourth seed after Louisiana-Monroe took advantage and defeated Louisiana-Lafayette 2-1 to win the regular season title alongside South Alabama’s 1-0 triumph over Troy that pushed the Bobcats from first to fourth.
Texas State will face off against fifth seeded James Madison for the second week in a row in the first round in what will surely be a hotly contested affair. The winner of this game will play either No.1 South Alabama or No.8 Louisiana-Lafayette.
Texas State and James Madison will kick off at 7 p.m. at the Foley Sports Tourism Complex in Foley, Ala. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.
