No. 8 Memphis women’s soccer played the second game of their final homestand of the regular season Sunday against the FAU Owls, escaping with a 2-1 win after some late game heroics by sophomore midfielder Ai Kitagawa.
With this win, the Tigers have clinched a berth in the American Conference tournament, where only the top eight teams in the league make it.
“I’ve done this a long time; this team has some special,” Memphis head coach Brooks Monaghan said after the game. “It’s too early to call them ‘a special team,’ but they have got some special and they didn’t give up.”
The match started off very scrappy. Neither team could really establish possession for long enough to generate consistent offense. Both sides had their chances in the first period, but no one was able to put anything away and the first half came to a scoreless end after a defensive grind.
“Honestly, it was pretty calm,” Monaghan said about the message to his team at halftime. “You’re better than this, be better.”
When the teams came back from the locker room to start the second period, the offenses were able to come alive. In the 47th minute, right after the half started, Kitagawa initiates a play with a cross and gets a pass back to finish with a laser in the left-hand side of the net to put the Tigers on the board first.
Not to be outdone, the Owls were able to collect themselves and find an equalizer from a header off of a corner kick to level the game at one point in the 69th minute.
The home crowd of about 750 fans then grew more and more anxious with each passing minute. It was a familiar pattern for Memphis, their opponents playing for a draw while the Tigers wanted to get aggressive and play for a full three points. With every defensive play, the FAU bench erupted as they wanted to stave off the Tigers for as long as possible.
There were multiple attempts made by Memphis to break the tie in the 83rd, when senior forward Flavie Dubé had an attempt ricochet off the crossbar and other players took their chances at goal but none of them found the back of the net.
Then, it happened. In the 89th minute, Kitagawa played through phenomenal goal line defense by FAU to split the defense and bury her second goal of the match to lift the Tigers past their opponents as the home crowd came to life with excitement and relief.
“Thank god I can go eat at Taco Bell,” Monaghan joked about his mindset after Kitagawa’s game winner. “Ai’s special, she’s extremely special and she is, by no means healthy. I’m very proud because she’s having to tough it out and we’re having to really manage her at practice so she can perform like she’s performed.”
The Tigers will be back in action at 11 a.m. CT on Sunday when they travel to Greenville to take on the ECU Pirates. The game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
