SALT LAKE CITY - Mia Paugh scored her first collegiate goal in the University of Utah women's soccer team's last nonconference match of the season, but the Utes fell to the Oregon State Beavers, 2-1, at Ute Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Utes outshot the Beavers, 17-8, and held a 7-2 advantage in corner kick opportunities, but a pair of second-half tallies by OSU proved to be the difference.
Utah will enter Big 12 Conference play next week with a 5-3-1 record, while Oregon State improves to 1-3-3 on the season.
"Really disappointing and unfortunate result for us today," said coach Hideki Nakada. "Playing a player down for 72 minutes is extremely difficult, but we could have managed the game better and still created more than enough opportunities to win, which makes it tough to walk away with a loss. The positive is that, like in every game so far, I feel we've been the better team. As we head into conference play, we have to capitalize on the chances we create and do a better job of finishing games."
It did not take long for Utah to get on the board, finding the netting in just the second minute. The Utes drew a corner kick which
Ryann Cull sent into the box and found the right foot of Paugh. The sophomore slotted it into the upper 90 for her first collegiate goal to give the Utes the 1-0 lead. It marked the first points of the season for the pair of defenders.
Utah has now scored off a corner kick in each of the last two matches, and the second-minute score was the earliest since the Utes' scored in the first minute against Utah State in 2017.
The Utes found themselves down a player when
Devi Dudley was assessed a red card in the 18th minute. Despite playing down a woman, the Utes took the 1-0 into the halftime break and held an 8-3 advantage in shots and a 5-1 corner kick edge after 45 minutes.
The Beavers made use of their woman-up advantage in the second half and were able to tie the score in the 47th minute after a shot careened off a Utah defender and across the goal line. OSU then moved in front in the 72nd minute with a score from outside the box.
Utah threatened to level the score with an indirect free kick from within the 18-yard box in the 78th minutes, but
Bella Woods' shot curled just outside the post. The Utes' generated another strong attack two minutes later but once again just missed on the scoring chance when
Ali Swensen's ball just flew over the crossbar.
Kelly Bullock sent one last shot towards goal in the final minute, but her attempt from outside of the box went just wide.
Next Up
Big 12 Conference play begins when the Utes travel to Texas for a contest against No. 14 TCU on Friday, Sept. 19. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. MT and will be streamed on ESPN+.
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