KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – No. 11 Auburn took a second-half lead but couldn't finish it off as the Tigers fell to No. 17 Tennessee, 2-1, in double overtime Thursday night at Regal Soccer Stadium.
Marissa Arias scored her fourth goal in as many games to give Auburn (7-2-0, 1-1-0 SEC) a 1-0 lead in the 69th minute. However, Tennessee (8-1-0, 1-1-0 SEC) responded with the equalizer in the 86th minute and ultimately won the game in the opening seconds of double overtime.
"I really thought our young team got better tonight," head coach Karen Hoppa said. "Our second half was much better than our first half, but we just couldn't close out the game against a very good Tennessee team.
"Credit to Tennessee," Hoppa added. "They played fantastic tonight. We just need to do a better job of game management late in the game, but it was a really hard-fought battle, and I thought our team got better tonight."
Auburn was aggressive in the early going as Olivia Candelino got off two shots on goal in the first seven minutes of action. However, the Tigers managed just one shot for the remainder of the first half.
The defensive unit led by Alyssa Malonson, M.E. Craven and Maddie Prohaska held strong, though, thwarting away Tennessee's eight first-half shots, including three on goal, and six corner kicks.
After making three saves in the first 45 minutes, Prohaska picked up where she left off out of halftime, making a pair of big saves in the opening minutes to keep the game scoreless. The sophomore goalkeeper ultimately came up with a season-high six saves in the contest.
The pace picked up in the middle stages of the second half as the Tigers looked to break into the scoring with three shots in a span of three minutes but came up empty.
Minutes after the flurry of attempts, Auburn capitalized on its first corner kick of the game. Anna Haddock took the corner, and Sydney Richards hit a one-timer off the left post before Arias ultimately put a rebound off a touch from Candelino into the back of the net.
Tennessee responded with the equalizer in the 86th minute, sending both teams to overtime for the first time this season.
After the two teams went scoreless for the first 10 minutes of overtime, the Volunteers scored 11 seconds after the double-overtime kickoff to end the game.
Sixteen Tigers saw action in the contest, including seven who played all 100-plus minutes.
Auburn returns to the Plains to take on division foe Texas A&M (5-4-1, 1-1-0 SEC) Sunday at 2 p.m. CT at the Auburn Soccer Complex.