The Northwestern State University of Louisiana women’s soccer team fell 1-2 to the Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMUC) on Sunday at the Lady Demons Soccer Complex.
With six Southland Conference games gone by, the Lady Demons’ record sits at 7-6-2 after the close match to the Lions.
In the first half of the game, the Lady Demons managed to get five shots on goal and the Lions managed eight. NSU set the tone for the game after Dawson Marrs, sophomore midfielder and forward, found the back of the net after the assist from Emily Gundin, sophomore forward.
The Lions turned around and scored on NSU shortly after their celebration. Lions teammates Kaydence Ramirez, sophomore midfielder and forward, with the assist from Mindy Shoffit, senior defender, led both teams to a tie.
Not long after, the Lions took the lead with Savannah Powell, senior forward, quickly changing the score to 2-1.
Libe Banuelos, senior goalkeeper, discussed how the Lions were aggressive the whole game.
“We needed to go long because they were a very physical team,” Banuelos said. “They were really big and athletic. We should’ve made the decision to go long as a team who always plays out of the back and we like to have the ball in our control.”
Annie Stook, redshirt sophomore class and center midfielder, shared her perspective on the game after watching on the sidelines due to her injury.
“I think our biggest challenge was getting good opportunities to the forwards without having to swing through the middle as much,” Stook said.
Both teams had the opportunity to score in the second half. NSU took six shots on goal and TAMUC managed to shoot for 10, but neither team could find the back of the net.
Emily Senatore, sophomore center midfielder, explained that the Lady Demons were learning to adapt to a new formation for this game.
“We jumped into something new and a lot of us struggled with that,” Senatore said. “I’m a midfielder and I was playing forward the whole game, so it was an adjustment for me and the whole team.”
Isabella Ruggiano, senior forward, shared the team’s mindset moving forward in their upcoming game this Friday against the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Islanders.
“It was a tough loss for us, and the rest of the season we have to focus on winning,” Ruggiano said. “I know Corpus had a tough loss this past weekend also, so they’re going to want to come back hard and strong and determined to beat us.”
After a difficult 2-1 loss to the Lions this weekend, the team looks to pick up a win against the Islanders on Friday at 7 p.m. in Corpus, Christi Texas.
