The 2024 Auburn Tigers soccer season came to a disappointing end on Friday afternoon.
Once the most dominant team in the sport, the Tigers struggled down the stretch of the regular season before backing into the NCAA Tournament. Karen Hoppa’s Tigers opened up the postseason with a victory at home against FIU last week, but failed to reach the Sweet 16 after a 2-1 loss at the hands of Ohio State in the Round of 32.
Auburn looked like the better team for the majority of the first half on a cold Friday in North Carolina, but a failure to put away scoring opportunities led to a deadlocked score for much of the opening frame. Ohio State finally broke through with forward Kailyn Dudukovic’s 19th goal of the season. The Buckeyes would go onto score another goal, which turned out to be the deciding score, on an Amanda Schluete header with just a minute to play in the first half.
The pair of first half scores from the Buckeyes proved too much to overcome, as even a late goal by Olivia Woodson in the 85th minute was too little too late for Karen Hoppa’s squad. Auburn will now look towards 2025 in hopes of returning to the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back years for the first time in nearly two decades.
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