CLEMSON, S.C. – The No. 8 Clemson Tigers drop the conference opener 4-2, in a hard-fought battle against No. 4 Florida State. Graduate Caroline Conti and senior Makenna Morris earned goals against the Seminoles while goalkeeper Halle Mackiewicz picked up four saves.
“Our team will be okay. We suffered a loss to a very good team and this was a game we could have won. There are a lot of great takeaways from this game and we are going to learn and get better from it,” Head Coach Eddie Radwanski said. “One game is not going to decide the ACC so there is lots of work to be done and we need to focus on the next opponent. This was the focus of today, we played the game and now we will do all of our preparation work for next week.”
The Tigers created opportunities early as they opened up scoring in the first five minutes of the half. Freshman Tatum Short was able to run down the ball on the left side of the field and turn it towards the net. After moving past the Florida State defender, Short was able to pass it through three Seminoles to Conti, who was in scoring position. Conti with her back towards the net was able to flip the ball around and kick the ball with her right foot on the right-hand side of the goal, just past the Seminole keeper’s reach.
In the 18th minute, the Tigers were presented with another scoring opportunity as senior Makenna Morris fired one past the Seminole keeper, which brought the lead to two. Senior Megan Bornkamp deflected the ball off a pass from freshman Dani Davis but Morris was able to pick up speed and find the ball. Morris then kicked the ball off her right foot into the left-hand side of the goal just above the keeper’s dive.
Despite the early momentum from the Tigers, the Seminoles were able to find scoring opportunities in the first half as Jordynn Dudley had an unassisted goal in the 25th minute and Maria Alagoa closed out the half by scoring at 43rd minute.
In the second half, the Tigers battled defensively and offensively but were just not able to find the back of the net. The Seminoles picked up two more goals from Beata Olsson (’51) and Onyi Echegini (’80).
This game marks the second top-10 matchup that the Tigers have hosted this season as Clemson also played host to No. 7 Arkansas earlier in the season.
Up next, the Tigers will face their next conference opponent on the road as they prepare to face-off against Miami on Thursday. Kick-off is slated for 6 p.m. and the match will be streamed on the ACC Network.
For complete coverage of the Clemson women’s soccer team, follow @ClemsonWSoccer on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
