Missouri women’s soccer season came crashing to an end Monday night.
The Tigers suffered their worst loss of the year, a 4-0 smothering against Arkansas, in the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. MU finished the year 8-9-3, 4-4-3 in SEC play. With a record like that, any thoughts of an NCAA tournament bid are fanciful whims at best.
When the Tigers were on the brink of a breakthrough, they would step back. When they were one step away from the peak, they would walk back down to the bottom. A roster that boasted five returning seniors consistently failed to deliver with consistency and poise, ending Missouri’s season before the semifinals on the SEC tournament have even begun.
This season, Missouri never won more than two games in a row.
In their third SEC game of the year, the Tigers took down the then-No. 7 Florida on national television, avenging two 2012 losses to the Gators. Everything seemed to be clicking for the Tigers.
Then the hangover: Missouri lost its next three games.
Suddenly, another big win happened. The Tigers topped the Florida victory in their biggest upset of the year, a 2-1 victory over then-No. 7 South Carolina.
The Florida and South Carolina wins are the only thing that could possibly, maybe, still-probably-not-but-possibly, get the Tigers a low NCAA tournament bid.
The victory over the Gamecocks propelled the Tigers to string together a four-game unbeaten streak at the end of the year, alternating between wins and ties. But, sticking to the storyline of the season, the success did not last.
Arkansas snapped Missouri’s unbeaten streak in the last game of the year with a 2-1 overtime heartbreaker in Fayetteville, Ark. The loss bumped Missouri from the No. 6 to No. 9 seed in the SEC tournament.
As the No. 9 seed, the Tigers got another shot against the No. 8 Razorbacks, and it was really ugly. Arkansas came out hot, scoring 7 minutes into the game.
The one thing that you could never take away from this team was its ability to scrap. Even in falling short, they fought. But that just didn’t happen in Orange Beach, Ala., on Monday night.
Before Monday’s blowout, the Tigers hadn’t lost a game by more than one goal all season.
And with that, the season came to a stop, screeching to a halt with a team wishing things could go on longer, and five seniors stepping off the ride for the final time in their Missouri career.