Memphis women clinch AAC West title with 4-0 defeat of UAB

This season for the University of Memphis women’s soccer team just keeps getting better and better. On Thursday night at the Billy Murphy Track & Soccer Field they turned in a comprehensive 4-0 win over the Blazers of UAB. With the win the Tigers improved their overall record on the season to 13-1, locked up the AAC West title, and secured the #1 overall seed in the AAC Tournament.

In a tasty appetizer to Saturday’s football game between Memphis and UAB, the Tigers jumped on the Blazers early and they jumped on them often. It was 2-0 after just five minutes as Anna Hauer opened the scoring with an assist from Mya Jones and then Honoka Hamano added a second with a fabulous solo run, weaving through four or five UAB defenders. The second half was more of the same from the Tigers. Saorla Miller made it 3-0 with a good run down the right side and then Haley Spray made it 4-0 on the Tigers 17th corner kick of the game. It all made for good viewing for the crowd, which appeared to be the largest of the season and even featured the Memphis band.

Winning the division title was certainly something that 5th year senior Saorla Miller had her eyes on for some time.

“Yeah it means everything” Miller said. “This is the first goal you always set out every season and the first one you can win in the regular season. My eyes were on this from the get-go.”

Miller also had praise for the freshman on the team, especially Anna Hauer, who have given the Tigers a level of depth that they haven’t always had.

“That’s huge. That’s huge. Honestly, in no other years have we been able to make as many subs as we’ve been able to make and have so many people come in and keep the level high. This is the most depth we’ve had, no doubt. So that’s definitely helped because you get tired legs as the season goes on and you can make subs.”

Hauer, in turn, had equally high praise for Miller.

“Honestly, it’s so special to get to play between Saorla and Mya Jones. It’s honestly been just so amazing for me to get the chance to get to play with them. We get to connect and we’re all very talented.”

Nor was Hauer the only one with high praise for Miller. Coach Brooks Monaghan had plenty of good things to say about not just Miller, but a number of the senior players.

“I think one of the things is our leadership. We have three veterans that are leaders on and off the field. I think they set a great example every day. This is a special group of leaders. Not only are they talented kids but it’s them. They’re the ones leading the team. I trust those three and I think they trust me. And that’s a very important ingredient in winning.”

In true Coach Monaghan fashion though, he still saw some things that he felt the team could have done better during the game.

“I was very pleased with the way we started but I thought after we got up 2-0 we got a little bit stagnant and we really challenged the kids going into the locker room and I thought they responded and came out with the energy we want for 90 minutes.

You know, I often talk about this team and it’s a good team or we wouldn’t be where we are. But we don’t want to be good. We want to be great, right? And if we’re going to meet our potential it’s all about the finer details and playing for 90 minutes.”

The Tigers have two games left in the regular season and the next one is against a Temple team that is winless in conference play at home on Sunday. It’s also the final home game of the regular season. They then close out their regular season schedule on the road at Tulsa before heading to Lakewood Ranch, Florida for their first AAC Tournament game on Halloween.