Corner kick leads Wildcats over Marauders
Entering Friday afternoon's match at the Community Bowl, the University of Mary's women's soccer team's last home loss had come more than a year ago in a 1-0 loss to Minnesota State-Mankato.
Their 10-game unbeaten streak came to an end with a thud, as Wayne State toppled the Marauders 3-0.
"It came down to three moments at the end, we played well, we outshot them but at the end of the day we couldn't put the ball in the back of the net," Marauders assistant coach Logan Christensen said. "We had three legitimate chances that their goalkeeper saved and then we gave up a set piece, which we knew they were a little dangerous on, and they put it away."
Friday's game was a lesson for the Marauders in that while the stats - outside of the score on the board at the end of the match - leaned in their favor, it's the team that capitalizes on their opportunities that will win.
Mary outshot the Wildcats 22-13 (9-5 in shots on frame), had an 11-4 advantage in corner kicks, and were only slightly down in fouls called (8-5).
It didn't matter, because one of those four corner kicks for Wayne State was a perfectly-placed curling shot into the top right corner of Mary's net off the foot of midfielder Paige Pemberton in the 79th minute of play.
"She had to hit the perfect one and it just happened to go in," Christensen said. "Not much you can do to defend that besides having a player standing right where the ball went in.
"You concede late, it becomes a game of how we can get more numbers forward to try and generate an opportunity. That's all we were trying to do, but that does expose you in the back."
The Marauders' hopes of a comeback spiraled from there, as the Wildcats took advantage of a counter opportunity with a 3-2 player advantage and Alaina Sorensen took a perfectly-placed shot that cleared Mary keeper Molly Fischer and gave Wayne State a 2-0 lead with 10 minutes left.
"After that first goal went in, we were pushing to get one and that changed how we were playing and that freed up their second goal," Christensen said. "That's one where we're pushing numbers forward, we sacrifice a player on our back line to give us more opportunities to score, and their pace hurt us in that moment, and they just had more numbers than us and that freed up an opportunity for her to hit it."
Sorensen made it a brace seven minutes later, joining a counter-attack by teammate Reagan Allen off a Mary corner kick that had Fischer come up to join Mary's offense.
Allen was pressed into the near sideline, but got off a cross towards the net and Sorensen was right on the doorstep to pop the final tally in.
"We have to re-focus, fine-tune how we want to score, who we utilize to score and build from there," Christensen said.
While Fischer had little hope of stopping any of Wayne State's three tallies, Wildcats keeper Sidney Truman had an excellent game guarding the other net, making nine stops and playing an outsized role in Wayne State having the opportunity to take the lead that it did.
Truman also benefitted from a strong outing from the Wildcats' defense, as they clogged the penalty box and made U-Mary's life difficult.
"Wayne State is gritty, they worked hard and they were tight to our forwards," Christensen said. "They didn't allow us any room to turn or an opportunity to play through them. It became a game of playing when it's compact, and that gave their centerbacks and back line an opportunity to step into us and that didn't give us much space to play behind them."
The Marauders have just two games remaining on their schedule, both of which will be at home.
They start with Sunday's game against Sioux Falls (2-8-1 NSIC, 2-12-1 overall) and finish their regular season next Thursday with a home match against Northern State (5-3-3 NSIC, 6-5-4 overall).
U-Mary's loss Friday finds them sixth in the NSIC standings before their final two games, though with an opportunity to move up, as second-place St. Cloud State is just four points up on the Marauders.
"We just need to refocus on our next game, it can't be on today," Christensen said. "We're sitting in a good spot, we're healthier than we've been in the past going into the playoffs, and we've gotten a lot of good experience.
"The conference has gotten better so teams are better, so we'll just take things game-by-game."
U-Mary has now gone scoreless in consecutive games.
The loss is U-Mary's first by three or more goals since a 3-0 loss to Minnesota State-Mankato on Oct. 24, 2021.
