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LOS ANGELES, Calif. – The No. 25 Cal State Fullerton women's soccer team took an early 2-0 lead over No. 11 USC in the first half, but fell 4-3 in penalty kicks after the Trojans tied the game in the second half.
The Titans end their season with a 16-3-2 overall record, while the Trojans improve to 14-5-2 and will face the winner of the Princeton-Boston College game in the Second Round.
"I want to congratulate a very good USC Trojans team for advancing on to the Second Round," Cal State Fullerton head coach Demian Brown said. "The game in itself was hard-fought. I couldn't be more proud of our women – not just in today's match, but throughout the course of the season."
Cal State Fullerton jumped on the board first as Christina Burkenroad headed in her 11th goal of the year at 18:15 on a throw in from Rebecca Wilson who tallied her 10th assist on the play.
The Titans added to their lead in the 34th minute of play when Wilson sent a header into the net off of a corner kick from Sarah Fajnor. Wilson's goal marked her team-leading 19th of the season.
Although the Titans held the 2-0 advantage at halftime, USC held the lead on shots (13-2) and corner kicks (5-1).
Fullerton goalkeeper Jennifer Stuart (14-1-1) was stout between the posts as she recorded 10 saves during the match and collected four in the first half.
The second half saw the USC offense break through the Fullerton defense as the Trojans' Morgan Andrews recorded a hat trick in the period. Andrews' first goal of the game came at 49:00, then she tied the game at 2-2 with her second score at 58:03 off a cross from Kayla Mills.
Less than a minute after USC evened the score at 2-all, Cal State Fullerton answered as Jessica Simonian tipped the ball in the far post for her first goal of the year to give the Titans a 3-2 lead.
Trailing by one, Andrews was fed the ball from Mills once again as she completed the hat trick and tied the game for the last time
Going into the overtime period, neither team was able to get a goal across. Stuart and USC keeper Sammy Prudhomme (16-3-2) matched each other between the posts as the two teams were forced into a shootout.
Fullerton took the first penalty kick as Prudhomme collected the save off of Wilson's shot. From there, USC and Fullerton matched each other PK for PK, until Prudhomme blocked Kaycee Hoover's shot to give USC the win.
"It's a disappointment that we will no longer have the opportunity to watch our seniors compete for the Titans, but the mark that they leave on our program is tremendous," Brown said. "This [loss] was obviously hard, but I'm hopeful throughout the course of the country and within the NCAA they take good notice as to how competitive a match like this is."
