No. 2 Jacks look ahead to conference tournament

Photo from GoJacks.com

Photo from GoJacks.com

Jake Weber, Sports Reporter

The SDSU women’s soccer team played their final regular season games this weekend and are now getting ready for the Summit League tournament in Denver.

The Jackrabbits played their first game of the weekend Friday against Omaha, winning 2-1.

Omaha struck first and scored a goal in the 25th minute.

The Jacks answered in the second half and grabbed their first goal when freshman Teani Arakawa bagged her fifth goal of the season in the 52nd minute to even the score at one apiece.

With 10 minutes left in the game, freshman Avery Murdzek scored her sixth goal of the season to give the Jackrabbits a late lead, hoding on to a one-goal win.

The Jacks managed to win despite being outshot by the Mavericks 18-9. The game was also hotly contested, as 25 total fouls were called and possession was split evenly between both teams.

This marked the 15th win for the Jacks this season, which tied a program record. It also broke a three-game streak of 0-0 ties between SDSU and Omaha.

The Jackrabbits then traveled to Colorado to finish their regular season Sunday against conference leaders Denver.

SDSU fell to Denver 2-0, marking only their third loss of the year and second loss in the conference.

The loss was only the second time SDSU had been held scoreless this year and broke an 11-game streak of scoring a goal.

Denver controlled the game, scoring midway through both halves as they outshot the Jacks 18-1, and owned over 60% possession.

Jacks goalkeeper Jocelyn Tanner was kept busy as she recorded a career-high six saves in the competition, despite allowing two goals.

With their regular season over, the Jacks now look ahead to the Summit League tournament as the No. 2 seed. SDSU has not finished worse than second in the conference standings in five years under coach Brock Thompson.

They will play in a rematch against No. 3 seed Omaha Nov. 4. If the Jacks beat Omaha, they will play the winner of the matchup against No. 1 Denver and No. 4 USD Nov. 6.