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LOGAN, Utah -

Utah 3, USU 0

With a record-number of fans in attendance, Utah State soccer was unable to capitalize on its offense, falling to in-state rival Utah, 3-0, Friday at Chuck & Gloria Bell Field.

With their win, the Utes remain undefeated, improving to 5-0-2. The Aggies will head into the final match of non-conference play with a 3-3-1 record.

"I thought we came out strong in the first half, but we obviously just didn't take advantage of our chances. I think if we put one or two of those in early on it's a different match, but we kept them in it until halftime, and then I think we let a 0-0 game become 2-0 too quick," said USU head coach Heather Cairns. "We didn't respond well after they scored that first goal and it put us back on our heels. We've got to learn to fight through that. You're going to get scored on, you're not going to keep a clean sheet every match, so I don't think we responded well enough for that,"

Overall, Utah now leads the all-time series between the two teams, 12-4-0. The Utes also won the meeting last season, in Salt Lake City. The last time the Aggies came out ahead was in the 2012 season, when the two teams competed at Rio Tinto Stadium.

The first half started slow, with both teams playing very defensively. The match went into the halftime break at a scoreless tie, with almost every statistic even all the way around. UU had a 5-4 edge in shots, but three of the Aggies' shots were on goal.

The Utes returned from the break strong, as freshman forward Mariah Elmer scored her first collegiate goal just four minutes into the second half. She broke through the Aggie defense, lobbing the ball into the top right corner of the goal.

Utah continued on its run, netting another goal in the 55th minute by freshman forward Natalie Vukic, assisted by sophomore midfielder Katie Rigby. After another 10 minutes of action, Rigby logged a goal of her own, volleying the ball in from a pass from junior midfielder Kaycee Buckley.

For the remainder of the match, Utah slowed its play, trying to maintain possession and keep the shutout.

Utah State took just nine shots in Friday's match, the fewest since two in the team's season-opener at Arkansas. The Utes out-shot the Aggies, 11-9, while both teams had four shots on goal. Sophomore Jessica Brooksby led the Aggies in shots taken with two, giving her nine on the season. For Utah, junior goalkeeper Lindsey Luke earned her fifth shutout of the season, while maintaining the low allowance of three goals on the season.

"When you get into conference play, the matches are really tight and they're decided by one or two individual plays, so I think you take from this match that we didn't respond well enough to the opportunity to put the match away early and we didn't respond well enough when we did get a goal down. So I think we just have to take those lessons away from today, because we've been either really dominating and controlling matches or given up a lot of goals; there's not really been any tight matches and we've got to learn to be able to play in those tighter matches," Cairns said.

The Aggies return to the pitch on Sunday, Sept. 21 at Noon, when they host UC Riverside at Chuck and Gloria Bell Soccer Field in the final non-conference match of the season. The team will open Mountain West play on the road on Friday, Sept. 26. USU will take on conference-newcomer Colorado College at 1 p.m., an updated change of time from the original schedule.

Fans can follow the Aggie soccer program on twitter at @USUSoccer or on Facebook at USUSoccer. Aggie fans can also follow the Utah State athletic program at @USUAthletics or on Facebook at USUAthletics. Aggie soccer can also be followed on Instagram at @ususoccer.