South Carolina moves one step closer to College Cup by shutting out Kansas
South Carolina’s win streak and shutout streak continued Sunday as the Gamecocks blanked Kansas, 2-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA women’s soccer tournament.
The Gamecocks scored two second half goals, announcing themselves as the better side in a game featuring two of the country’s top defenses at Stone Stadium. USC will host Washington State at 6 p.m. Friday for a chance to be in the College Cup for the second time in three years.
“Knowing that we’ve earned another chance to be home is an amazing feeling,” said USC coach Shelley Smith. “This crew has been amazing and they want to keep playing here at Stone Stadium.”
South Carolina (19-1-3) is on a seven-game win streak. It hasn’t been scored on in more than 650 minutes.
Kansas entered, too, with a sound defensive reputation. The Big 12 champion Jayhawks hadn’t allowed a goal in more than 400 minutes until Grace Fisk headed a Lauren Chang free kick to the back of the net with 27:20 left. It was Fisk’s first NCAA Tournament goal since the go-ahead score against Florida in the 2017 quarterfinals.
“I don’t score often,” said Fisk, the three-time SEC Defensive Player of the Year. “My main job is keeping goals out, but it’s nice to help the team and get a goal on the other end. I think a goal had been coming and we deserved to get a goal.
“It came off a set piece. I think if I didn’t get it, Anna (Patten) probably would have got it behind me.”
The lead was padded 13 minutes later thanks to Riley Tanner’s third goal in three NCAA Tournament games.
Mikayla Krzeczowski, the Gamecocks’ other decorated defender, now has 50 career shutouts, including 16 this season, good for most in program history.
The senior made four saves, including two early as Kansas (17-5-3) came out the aggressor with four shots in the opening seven minutes.
“Our best looks came in the first 20 minutes and we didn’t capitalize,” said Jayhawks coach Mark Francis. “And against a good team, you’re not going to get too many good looks. You’re going to have some half-chances and things like that, which we did after that, but I think our best chances came in the first 20-25 minutes.”
Kansas, coming off a 3-0 win over Xavier on Friday, was shut out for the first time since Oct. 13, a span of 11 games.
“This has been the most successful defense that we’ve had,” said Smith, who’s leading her 19th South Carolina team. “The shutouts alone just speak for themselves. ... I think our offense gets overlooked sometimes, but they’ve done a great job to put us into the winning spot.”
This story was originally published November 24, 2019 at 3:58 PM.
