It's been nine years since women's soccer tasted success in the postseason, but Wednesday night, after 104 minutes of play, Brooks Monaghan and his Lady Tigers finally achieved a postseason win.
It was the first time Monaghan has won a Conference USA tournament game in the four times his team has made it.
The 2-1 win over East Carolina pushes Memphis into a semifinal match against UAB tonight at 7:30 p.m. and can be tracked live with Gametracker, located Memphis' athletic Web site gotigersgo.com.
The game-winning goal came off the foot of sophomore Kylie Hayes when she tipped a pass from Halley Jo Sullivan into the net past East Carolina goalie Amber Campbell.
Early in the match it looked as if Memphis would come home without a win when Pirate Blair Heffner scored four minutes into the game. However, Tiger forward Geneil Newbern tied the game nine minutes later off a stolen pass.
In other women's soccer news sophomore Maiko Higashiyama was named C-USA Newcomer of the Year. Higashiyama is the team's third leading scorer with 13 points on six goals and one assist. Shoko Mikami and Kate Murphy were also awarded with first team and third team C-USA honors respectively.
The men's team, accustomed to winning in the postseason, had the opposite result losing to Kentucky 3-1, despite a 19th minute goal by sophomore midfielder Tripp Harkins to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
The Wildcats, ranked second in the conference and 13th in the nation, scored three unanswered goals to pull away and advance to the semifinals.
The Tigers finish with a 10-8 record and a disappointing 3-6 record in C-USA play. Next year they return every player except third-team C-USA selection Jamie Gilbert.
The Tigers will return their best defender in Michael Coburn who missed the entire regulars season recovering from a broken ankle he suffered less than three minutes into the team's first preseason game against Christian Brothers University.
