Logan Harvill
Fri, Sept. 27, the Pitt State women’s soccer team went head-to-head with the University of Nebraska Kearny (UNK). The first half of the event saw no scores from either team with a score of 0 – 0 going into halftime. UNK’s Daniella LaQuinta scored the first goal of the game 64 minutes in and would hold the lead until 81 minutes into the game when Jadyn Newell scored Pitt State’s first goal with an assist from Dylann Ehegartner, tying the match. After three minutes, the Gorillas took the lead when River Riley scored a goal. UNK managed to get one last score before the game ended, tying the Gorillas and Lopers with a final score of 2 – 2.
Sun Sept. 29, the Gorillas played their second game of the week against Fort Hayes State University (FHSU). Once again, the first half of the game passed without a score from the Gorillas or the Tigers. The second half, however, saw two scores from Tigers when Montserrat Diaz scored FHSU their first goal followed by Sydney Cotter. The game ended with a final score of 0 – 2.
Although Sunday’s game was unsuccessful for the Gorillas, Coach Wes Branstetter was impressed by his team’s ability to hold their own against Fort Hayes. He believes he can still improve on getting his team prepared and ready after half time.
“I think we came out and played hard,” Branstetter said. “We were disciplined, we did everything we were supposed to do against the Fort Hayes team. They are direct and physical, and they’ve got older players, but I think I took too long getting the team out of half time. That’s 100 percent my fault, the team came out a little flat for the first few minutes and I’ve got to get that fixed.”
Branstetter believes his team performed better on Friday’s game as opposed to Sunday’s, but is still proud of the effort that his team put in.
“I think the team did better on Friday; both teams we played were very good,” Branstetter said. “Fort Hayes was in the NCAA last year, so I think they are similar tests in the sense of level but with different types of play. I think we played against Kearny a bit better overall. For this match, we fought back hard, we just did not give ourselves enough opportunities to get back into the game.”
Although his team fell behind on Sunday’s game, Branstetter believes his team remains positive by keeping their goals in mind and striving to be the best.
“Our goals are always in front of us and (the team) knows we’re chasing a championship and when you’re chasing the championship, you’re trying to become champions, it doesn’t matter what the score is. How you approach the score matters but you’re always chasing your best, so at the end of the day you’re better and you’ve grown from it,” Branstetter said.
Although improvements need to be made, Branstetter was impressed by the urgency the team had going into the game.
“We weren’t very disciplined at half time; what that means is we didn’t want to fowl a lot to give the other team free kicks, so that is something we will need to work on. The positive for this game, however, was the urgency. When we were down, the urgency was there for both games this weekend. The key is we’ve got to not go down and still be urgent.”
Midfielder, Dylann Ehegartner, is also proud of her team’s performance in this week’s games. Ehegartner believes everyone on the team came prepared and gave it their all.
“I feel as a team we put in a lot of effort, and we were going in the right direction. The cards didn’t fall how we wanted them to but overall, it was a strong performance, and everyone gave 110 percent effort. We were all there and ready to fight, we just didn’t end up winning the game.”
According to Ehegartner, the team’s greatest strength was the energy everyone on the team brought with them.
“We had a lot of high energy, and we were very aggressive. Our main goal was to focus on winning the first ball out of the air and trying to get the ball and transition quickly to goal. I felt like we did a good job putting the pressure on right away.”
Although the team was expecting a challenging game against Fort Hayes, Ehegartner believes her team stepped up and faced the challenge head on.
“We knew Fort Hayes was going to be a very aggressive game coming out. Keeping up with them physically was a big adjustment for some of our younger people like our freshmen who’ve never had to deal with something like that before, but everybody still tried to step up to the plate and match their physicality.”
While being proud of the effort put forth by her team, Ehegartner also feels that she achieved her personal goal during this weekend’s games by getting onto the field and proving herself as a force to be reckoned with.
“My goal every game is to leave it out all on the field and I think I accomplished that, especially in the Fort Hayes game. I was just trying to give it my all so the other team knows that I am here and that I made a difference.”
