By Glypie Grider
For the first time in collegiate history, the University of Louisville women’s soccer team faced Southeast Missouri State. And for the first time, Louisville fell to the Otahkians.
U of L walked away from Cardinal Park on Friday night, defeated 3-1.
In front of 435 spectators, the Otahkians opened with the kickoff.
Action occurred evenly on both sides of the field as both teams exchanged shots tit-for-tat. Nine minutes into the match, SEMO almost converted a corner kick as an Otahkian shot ricocheted off the crossbar.
Cardinal freshman Jamie Craft immediately reversed the play as she carried the ball over half the field, preparing for the Louisville attack. Despite the eight Cardinal shots in the first half, “we couldn’t capitalize on our chances,” admitted assistant Cardinal coach, Tim Nowak. Head coach Karen Ferguson was not present at the game. According to Nowak, she was “attending to personal matters.”
The Cards were forced to drop to a 10-player team when sophomore Tara Weatherford, a defender, was issued a red card in the 22nd minute of play. Weatherford had to sit out the duration of the game, as well as Sunday’s game at Evansville, Indiana.
“We did a great job organizing after [the card],” said Nowak.
Though the shots by the Cardinal offense increased following the red card, SEMO was the first to score during the match. After approximately 20 minutes of playing down a man, U of L allowed SEMO to capitalize on their numbers and score in the 43rd minute of play. SEMO freshman Molli Beard scored her third collegiate goal from an assist by sophomore teammate Lisa Schweppe.
With less than two minutes left in the half, the Cards “pulled it together and communicated,” explained freshman Cardinal defender Amy Seng.
“Lots of people still gave it their all after the card and the [SEMO] goal,” agreed freshman Cardinal Lindsay Scheer.
This “pull” carried over into the second half as the Cardinals trailed 1-0. “We came out ready in the second half,” said Nowak as evidenced when, eight minutes into the play, Seng carried the ball from the defensive half up the right side. She crossed it into the center, where junior Kim Jents dummied the ball through to Scheer. Scheer nailed the ball into right corner pocket, past SEMO goalkeeper junior Amanda Wrzos, to tie the score at 1-1.
This marked Scheer’s second collegiate goal and Seng’s second collegiate assist.”Our goal should have given us the incentive to dig deeper,” said Seng. “But it just didn’t happen. We let our fatigue set in.”
After the tied game, SEMO scored two more goals within six minutes of each other. Otahkian sophomore Ashley DeRoy scored both goals, her first assisted by fellow sophomore Megan Hejlek.
“We just lost our momentum after our goal,” reiterated Scheer.
On Sunday, the Cards travelled to Evansville and defeated the Aces 1-0. The Cardinal record now stands at 5-4-2. They will take on the Murray State Racers at 7 p.m. at Cardinal Park on Friday.
Additional information provided by Sports Information.
