Tigers Falter at Little Rock

Sunday, August 28

Little Rock, Ark.

7:00 PM

University of Memphis

3-1-0

Little Rock

2-2-0

Memphis

Little Rock

Photo by: Matthew Smith

Aug 28, 2016 | Women's Soccer

Box Score

Memphis shut out despite 20 shots in the match

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Coming off of an emotional 2-1 win over No. 19 Ole Miss on Friday night the Memphis women's soccer team had a bit of a letdown on Sunday, falling 2-0 to Little Rock for the Tigers first loss of the season.

"What we learned this weekend is that hard work can beat talent," Memphis head coach Brooks Monaghan said. "Obviously we are a talented team but Friday we worked our socks off for 90 minutes and we got what we deserved. Today the opponent worked their socks off for 90 minutes and we didn't and we got what we deserved."

Little Rock jumped on Memphis early, taking a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick in the 11^th minute. The Trojans doubled the lead 15 minutes later from a corner kick putting Memphis in a deep hole.

Memphis got a lifeline in the 32^nd minute when the Tigers were awarded a penalty kick. Marie Levasseur missed the spot kick though, keeping the score 2-0.

The Tigers had the ball in the back of the net in the 61^st minute but a handball was ruled and the goal waved off.

It would prove to not be the Tigers' night as Valerie Sanderson then went on to hit the crossbar with a rocket header in the 69^th minute.

Memphis piled on the pressure in the final 20 minutes but couldn't get the ball in the net. The Tiger had 20 shots in the match to UALR's five total shots.

Sanderson fired seven shots during the match and hit the woodwork twice.

"They created their luck with hard work. We didn't deserve for luck to go our way today and we need to learn from that. Every game we have to show up and give it our all and if we do we will win a lot of games. We proved to ourselves that it's about a lot more than talent," Monaghan said.

The Tigers return home with a 3-1 record and will host UMKC at Mike Rose Soccer Complex Friday, Sept. 2, at 7:30 p.m. The match will be part of a doubleheader with the Tigers' men's soccer team.

Friday night will be a special night at Mike Rose with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in attendance to recognize two cancer survivors that are special to the Memphis soccer family. Alyssa de Jong, daughter of men's goalkeeper coach Remco, and her cousin, Tyler, were both diagnosed with cancer and have since raised $200,000 to fund and raise awareness for St. Jude. As part of the evening there will be donation tables set up for the families.