University of Washington
Auburn
Elston's Goal Not Enough In 2-1 NCAA Loss To Auburn
November 09, 2012 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 9, 2012
Final Stats
| UW-Auburn Quotes 
SEATTLE - After falling behind to two early goals, the Washington soccer team got a long, beautiful strike from junior midfielder Lindsay Elston, but it wasn't enough as the Huskies fell to Auburn, 2-1, in an NCAA tournament opening-round match Friday night at Husky Soccer Field.
The Tigers (13-10-1) took a quick lead, scoring just two minutes and 12 seconds into the match when Tori Ball's close-range shot was saved by UW goalkeeper Kari Davidson, but directly back to Ball, who tucked it away for her sixth goal of the season.
Just 12 minutes and one second later, a corner from Ball found the head of teammate Mary Nicholson, who put it in from about five yards out to stake the visitors with a 2-0 lead. It was the first goal of the season and just the second in the career of the senior defender.
"Tori Ball had a perfect corner kick, our offense did well to get the corner kick," said Nicholson. "I've been thinking about scoring a goal pretty much my whole entire career so that was really exciting to finally get one--a big one."
Washington clawed its way back into the match before halftime at the 37:47 mark when Elston struck a long shot from the right wing and drove the ball into the far corner past a diving Amy Howard in goal, cutting the Tigers' lead to 2-1.
"Lindsay gave us more than a lifeline with the goal she scored," said UW head coach Lesle Gallimore. "It was just a ridiculous goal and she's been doing it all year. I thought our energy from the time she scored in the first half until the rest of the game was ridiculous."
Elston's goal breathed new life into the Huskies, who spent the remainder of the first half and the early part of the second half creating offensive chances, but none resulted in the tying goal.
"I wish it started that way because as you can see, we're a really good team," Elston said. "It's just demoralizing to go down a goal, let alone two, and to come back and play like we did. I'm really proud and I'm really excited for next year."
The Huskies finished the season 10-8-3 overall.
"As a coach, it's just really hard to get to the postseason and literally start the other team with two goals and have to play from behind. It isn't how you want to find yourself," Gallimore reflected. "I'm proud of how my team reacted to it, but in the NCAA tournament it's not how you win games."
The Tigers advance to the second round of the NCAA tournament to face the winner of Saturday's match between regional top seed BYU and Utah State.
