Eastern soccer falls 2-1 in 2OTs to USC

The Eastern Washington women’s soccer team pushed the defending national champion University of Southern California right to the edge, but not over.

The 14th-ranked Eagles lost to the No. 3 Trojans 2-1 in double overtime last Saturday, ending their season — the best in school history — with a 16-6-1 record. USC improved to 15-3-1 and advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Eastern lost to USC 3-1 in the first round of the 2016 tournament in the school’s only previous meeting.

“This is a tremendous group,” head coach Chad Bodnar said. “We battled and came out and scored early on them and really defended well and hard.”

Eastern led 1-0 on Chloe Williams’ goal in the sixth minute as she converted a rebound off of a shot from Aimie Inthoulay and a save from the USC keeper.

They held that advantage until the second half when the Trojans’ Alex Anthony scored in the 51st minute. Erika Okuma won it for USC in the 101st minute.

USC outshot the Eagles 32-12, had a 10–8 edge in shots on goal and a 15–3 edge on corner kicks. EWU keeper Emily Busselman made a career-high eight saves in the loss.

Williams scored the 44th career goal and 109 career points, both of which are Big Sky and Eastern Washington records.

The team says goodbye to 10 seniors, including Williams, Busselman, Inthoulay, M’Kenna Hayes, Savannah Hoekstra, Delaney Romero, Lexi Klinkenberg, Abby Klinkenberg, Kiley Norkus and Josie Self. This group was part of Bodnar’s first recruiting class.

Paul Delaney can be reached at pdelaney@cheneyfreepress.com.