Morgantown, W.Va. – Loyola Marymount defeated the Gophers women's soccer team 1-0 on Friday afternoon in an NCAA second-round match. The Lions scored in the fourth minute when Sarah Sanger beat Gophers keeper Tarah Hobbs on the first shot of the match.
Hobbs made three saves in the match, while Loyola Marymount goalkeeper Charlee Pruitt had seven saves, five on forward Simone Kolander.
The shutout was the Lions' 12th this season and third in a row.
"We're certainly really disappointed to not be moving on," Gophers coach Stefanie Golan said. "We played well for the majority of the game but, just in those first three minutes, we had a little miscommunication that resulted in a goal against us."
"I don't think we played our best game tonight," Loyola Marymount coach Michelle Myers said, "but I give [our players] a lot of credit. They put a goal in early, gutted it out and came away with a win."
Loyola Marymount (15-5-1), a university in Los Angeles, had upset No. 17 California 1-0 in the first round to advance to the four-team pod hosted by West Virginia.
The Gophers (12-7-3) beat South Dakota State 5-0 at home in their first-round match and were trying to reach the third round for the third time in program history.
Minnesota was 11-2-2 in mid-October, rated No. 11 nationally, and leading the Big Ten with a 6-1 record when its season began to unravel. The Gophers lost 1-0 to Michigan State and tied Michigan 0-0 in two home matches the same week at the front end of a 1-5-1 finish during which they were shut out three times and scored once in three games.