Soccer ends season with Apple Cup loss
First loss to UW at home since 1996
WSU forward Lily Boyden trips over UW defender Kala McDaniel during an NCAA soccer match against UW, Nov. 5.
November 7, 2022
The Huskies jumped up and down in celebration while WSU teammates surrounded fifth-year Mykiaa Minniss in an embrace as she laid down on the grass in her final act at the Lower Soccer Field in a five-year career that saw her start 92 games as a Coug.
Her 92nd start gave her the record for most starts in program history by a field player.
Shortly after the game was over, a hail storm struck. The Huskies had just taken a victorious group picture while the Cougs were engaged in a somber huddle. The team kept their focus, broke their final post-game huddle of the season and rushed off the field, some for the last time in their college soccer careers.
To cap off a WSU soccer season that went from promising to disappointing, WSU soccer lost at home to rival Washington for the first time in the 21st century. The last time the Huskies won a soccer game in Pullman was 1996.
With that loss, WSU ended the year in ninth place in the Pac-12 in a season in which they began the year ranked in the top 25.
Saturday was going to be a bittersweet day regardless. The loss, WSU’s seventh of the year, was a further twist of the dagger of defeat in the Cougars’ chest.
WSU entered the season vying for a conference championship matching up with the top 25 likes of Stanford, UCLA and USC and the contending claws of the California Golden Bears.
In head-to-head matchups with the top of the Pac, the Cougs were 0-4.
The trend of the year for Cougar soccer was putting up a lot of shots and hardly ever finding the net.
Against UW, WSU found the net before the 10-minute mark but could not prevent a UW offense from imposing its will when it counted most leading to a 3-2 Washington win. UW outshot WSU 18-15.
WSU forward Lily Boyden celebrates with her teammates after scoring a goal during an NCAA soccer match against UW, Nov. 5.
Margie Detrizio scored the third-most goals in the Pac-12 in 2022. On Saturday, her 11th goal gave the Cougs an early 1-0 lead. Grayson Lynch had the assist on that play.
UW struck back less than eight minutes later to tie the game at 1-1.
In a passing of the torch of sorts, Lily Boyden, the freshman from Utah scored a goal to give the Cougars the lead again. Unfortunately, their 2-1 lead would not last as UW scored two consecutive goals to take the lead for good.
WSU forward Lily Boyden dribbles toward the goal during an NCAA soccer match against UW, Nov. 5.
The Huskies forced WSU goalkeeper Nadia Cooper to make seven saves while they themselves only made two.
Head coach Todd Shulenberger became the winningest coach in WSU soccer history with his 89th win on Oct. 2. He would remain the winner of only 89 games as the Cougs never won another game in the season.
The Cougars’ seventh loss of the season eliminates most logical stretches of the imagination in which WSU could qualify for the NCAA Tournament. This means a senior class that was in the center of a run to the College Cup in 2019 will not even get the chance to chase another historical postseason.
WSU forward Grayson Lynch slows her run down as the ball goes out-of-bounds during an NCAA soccer match against UW, Nov. 5.
Shulenberger will address the media and Cougar Nation on Tuesday. When he does so, he will face questions not only about the Cougars’ disappointing 2022 season but of what the future could hold for a team that too often just could not find the back of the net.
