Saint Louis University finally saw its dormant offense come alive last Friday to extinguish the USF Bulls, but fizzled against the Memphis Tigers in the second round of the Conference USA tournament play.
After 11 days without a game and being rained out on Thursday, the Billikens squared off against the Blazers in the opening match of the C-USA tournament on Friday. An early Billiken goal and tough defense throughout the game sent the Blazers home early.
Sophomore Alex Matteson scored in the seventh and 77th minutes to give SLU their 2-0 edge in the game. Matteson's two goals were his third and fourth on the season, eclipsing his career high of two, set in 2003.
The Bills' first strike came on a shot that Matteson chipped over USF goalkeeper Dane Brenner, giving SLU an early 1-0 edge.
Matteson received the ball from freshman defender Brandon Gasparovic, and sent his chip on goal from 17 yards out on the right side.
Matteson tallied his second goal of the match after junior midfielder Danny Wynn knocked down a USF clearance attempt and found him on a run down the left side of the field. Matteson struck his second goal past Brenner from 15 yards out.
In their regular-season meeting, SLU allowed the USF attack to net two goals in a tie in Florida, but clamped down to earn freshman goalkeeper Pat Disbennett his first postseason shutout. Disbennett made four saves to keep the Blazers off the scoreboard.
"Our game plan going in this time was better," coach Dan Donigan said. "We put together a good game to beat a good South Florida team."
The rain on Thursday forced the Bills to play their first two games on consecutive days, while No. 1 seed Memphis entered Friday's match fresh off of a first-round bye.
The Tigers scored their only goal in the 41st minute, but their defense was able to keep the ball out of their own net and earned their second shut-out victory over the Bills this season.
SLU came out intent on protecting their goal throughout the first half, but Disbennett was beaten just four minutes before half time.
Tiger Midfielder John Reilly took advantage of a service following a corner kick and headed the ball past Disbennett to tally the only goal in the game.
"Memphis certainly came in riding a high," Donigan said. "We defended well early; our goal was to get into half-time tied 0-0. It was a mistake within our own half with four minutes left in the half that gave Memphis the 1-0 win."
The Bills only managed six shots and placed only one on net.
The Memphis defense handed SLU their seventh shut-out loss on the season.
Despite their early exit, the Bills placed two players on the C-USA All-Tournament team. Senior defender Brett Branan and Matteson each earned the honors.
The second-round loss also prevented SLU from earning an NCAA tournament bid.
This season marks only the fourth in 46 years in which a SLU team has failed to qualify for the NCAA postseason tournament.
"We have a sour taste in our mouth being only the fourth team to not get a bid," Donigan said. "We can't sugarcoat our season.
We need to face not winning as many games as we wanted to or needed to."
As some consolation to the Bills after their loss, Memphis went on to win the C-USA Championship the following day.
In a tightly contested match, the Tigers came out on top of the Blazers by a score of 3-2. The Tiger's victory marks the first C-USA crown in the team's history.
The early end to the season also brings an early start to off-season preparations for SLU's move to the Atlantic 10 Conference.
Donigan also has some extra time to complete his recruiting to bolster his squad for next season.
"We can't be bitter and dwell on our shortcomings. This gives us a chance to sit down with the players one-on-one and help them improve," Donigan said.
With only two graduating seniors and a core of freshman and sophomore players, the Bills do not have many holes to fill. The Bills will return nearly all of their starters, offensively and defensively.
Goalkeeper Martin Hutton and Branan will be the only two players SLU will lose to graduation.
"We're looking for a defender to add some size and strength to our back line," Donigan said. "We're always looking for an opportunity to bring quality players into the program."
At the onset of the season, the Billikens were widely picked as the conference favorite. The talent many prognosticators saw in the squad never came to fruition. With some tweaking in the off-season,SLU hopes next year will end differently.The Billikens' season came to an end at the hand of Memphis in the C-USA Tournament.
