The Utah State women’s soccer team captured the WAC championship for a second consecutive year on Sunday. After yet another gutsy defensive slog, the Aggies defeated No. 19 Denver to earn an automatic berth into the NCAA tournament.
Aggies head coach Heather Cairns gives a lot of credit for the victory to the raucous home crowd in Logan.
"We were able to host on Sunday. We had over a thousand fans there. And the fans were just amazing. They really gave our girls that extra step."
This is Utah State's second consecutive NCAA tournament berth, but they were dealt a tough hand in the first round. They face a BYU Cougars team that has lost just once all season. But Cairns says her teams is just happy to be in the tournament—and playing close to home.
"On the positive side, it's so close to Logan. And we had such great fan support at our conference tournament. We're hoping that people travel down and watch us. The travel is going to be fairly easy, so we're not going to have dead legs and all that fun stuff. So we're really excited about it."
The Cougars host the Aggies in Provo on Friday, November 9th at 6 p.m. to face the No. 1 seeded BYU. The winner faces either Washington or Auburn in the second round.