TAHLEQUAH, Okla. – The Saginaw Valley State University men's soccer team fell to the nationally fifth-ranked Quincy University Hawks on Friday (11/21) evening in the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 by a final score of 3-0. The game was played on the campus of Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
The first half was back-and-fourth, with Quincy holding a five to four advantage in shots, but SVSU put three of those shots on goal compared to two for the Hawks. Freshman goalkeeper Alexandre Bouillennec stopped both shots that came his way to keep the game tied 0-0 after the first 45 minutes of action.
The best chance of the first half was at the 29:34 marker when Quincy forward Jordan Roberts was one-on-one with Bouillennec on the right wing, but the freshman goalkeeper was able to deny Roberts to keep the game scoreless. Jordan Kalk, Vaughn Frederick, and Craig Neal had shots on goal for the Cards in the first frame.
Quincy applied pressure on SVSU to start the second half and was able to break the scoreless tie at the 48:52 mark of the second half. Xhovani Dokaj used a feed from Roberts to tap one in past Bouillennec to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.
The Hawks capitalized on a corner kick which led to a loose ball in front of the net and Chris Garavaglia knocking it into the back of the net to extend the Quincy lead to 2-0 at the 62:04 marker.
Junior Tyler Channell made a bid to cut the deficit with a shot from in close on the right wing but was turned away as the Hawks held onto their two goal lead. The Hawks added another goal at the 86:50 mark to extend their lead to 3-0, which is the way the game would end.
Bouillennec took the loss in net for the Cards while making seven saves in the contest. The freshman ended his first collegiate season with 14 victories between the posts.
The Cardinals' end the season with an overall record of 14-5-2 while Quincy improves to 20-1-2 and advances to the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals to face either Northeastern State University or Fort Hays State University on Sunday (11/23) afternoon.
"I thought we played a good first half," said SVSU Head Coach Cale Wassermann about the scoreless first half. "We conceded some possession but had some great opportunities on the counter. Early on into the second half we tried to press and just got out of position a little bit and they punished us with a nice little slotted ball behind us. It's just those moments that we tried to be a little more aggressive and they took advantage of some positioning errors. That's the kind of game you can't make mistakes. We were pushing and the third goal wasn't until the last two or three minutes when we had guys all the way up. We thought it was a pretty even game we just needed to keep things a little closer for a little longer."
Coach Wassermann added this about the season this year and the team making it back to the Round of 16 for the second time in three years...
"I'm extremely proud of our guys for another great season and representing the GLIAC pretty well and making it to the third round," said Wassermann. "I'm also disappointed with today's result. I'm really proud of our senior class who was the winningest class in school history. At the end of the day, Quincy is a good team and they were better today and they moved on."
"We've made a lot of strides with our program and now we're disappointed with not advancing to the quarterfinals as opposed to excited just to make it here. I think that says a lot about the character of the guys in the locker room and the guys who have built the program. Today we just didn't execute at our best and didn't finish a couple chances and Quincy took advantage of that. So hats off to them, they're a very good team and we wish them all the best representing the Midwest."
Saginaw Valley graduates six players from this year's team. The winningest class in program history compiled a record of 55-17-14 during their tenure at SVSU. The 2014 senior class consisted of Philip Strachan, Laurence Paterson, Zack Cooney, Zach Vasold, Craig Neal, and Michael Lamb.