Soccer Roundup - Senior Day

Men’s Recap

6-0 Victory vs Boston College

The men’s team exploded on senior night with six goals in the shutout, improving to 9-3-2 on the year. It was a highlight reel kind of game on senior night, with multiple flashy scores across the board and a hat trick for the senior Ousmane Sylla.

The first goal of the final home game came from Alex Meinhard off a deflection from Boston College’s keeper, Brennan Klein. Just minutes later, a ticky-tacky penalty on Nathan Richmond produced a penalty kick that was buried by Sylla for his first of the night.

The first real highlight came from none other than Sylla at the 30’ with a beautiful bit of dribbling that left the Eagles’ defenders lost and ended in a clinical finish for the 3-0 score:

That’s as good as it gets from your best striker, and from here on out Clemson would simply be looking to add style points.

It wouldn’t take long for that to materialize, as Nathan Richmond scored via a disgusting back-heel flick that would make it 4-0. The goal came in at number 5 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays of the week:

Meinhard would find his second goal of the night for the brace (two goals in a game) in the 50’ before Sylla collected his third a few minutes later for his first-ever hat trick, a fitting achievement on senior night.

The 6-0 finish marked Clemson’s most goals scored in a conference matchup since 2019.

Women’s Recap

3-0 Victory vs Louisville

As expected, the Lady Tigers were able to put away the struggling Louisville Cardinals with a 3-0 victory to grab their 12th win of the season.

The scoring wouldn’t start until late in the second half, but things loosened up once Clemson found its first goal, beginning with Renee Lyles slipping past defenders and finding the net in the 71’.

Just seven minutes later, Clemson found a second goal as Sami Meridith connected on a cross from Dani Davis for this beautiful score:

Lyles’ brace was completed nearly ten minutes after her first goal was scored as she received a pass from Emily Brough and found a nice angle to slip her shot just past the Louisville keeper. The 3-0 score would hold and Clemson moved on to their senior night matchup against Pittsburgh.

1-0 Victory vs Pittsburgh

On senior day, Clemson managed to survive #18 Pittsburgh with the lone goal from senior Makenna Morris for a 1-0 win. Her score came in the 53’ after she made a nice run to find herself with the ball in front of the net:

That would be the only goal of the day, but it was enough to lift Clemson past Pittsburgh and improve to 13-1-3 on the season. It was a hard-fought victory for the Lady Tigers, with fellow senior Halle Mackiwicz tying the Clemson record for single-season shutouts at 12 on the year; Pitt had not been held scoreless all season prior to their loss against Clemson. Mackiewicz will get a chance to take sole ownership of that record with the final game against Notre Dame later this week.

Upcoming Matchups

Both teams will conclude their regular seasons with one more away game. The women will travel to South Bend to face off with #12 Notre Dame on Thursday night, while the men will visit Ralegh and the NC State Wolfpack on Friday.

Both teams are positioned to hold high seeds for the ACC tournaments and should look to make deep post-season runs.