David Sheets reporter
The Pitt State women’s soccer team spent another weekend playing on the road for two matches. They would draw 1-1 against the Rogers State Hillcats on Friday, Oct. 4, and lose 1-3 against the Northeastern State RiverHawks on Sunday, Oct. 6.
“On Friday, we came out flying,” said head coach, Wes Branstetter. “We scored about a minute and ten seconds into the game. Even though we conceded about 10 minutes later, I feel like we had the energy and were doing things correctly; we just couldn’t find that second goal. I think that was a very good performance. That’s the hard thing about soccer, sometimes you have a good team performance, and it still ends in a draw or a loss.”
The Gorillas would indeed score a mere seventy seconds into the match when grad student, Jadyn Newell, netted her second goal of the season with an assist from sophomore, Ryann Caruth. The Hillcats would answer with their own goal 10 minutes later and that would remain the score for the remainder of the match. Senior, McKenna Robinson, would lead Pitt State in shots with five, and freshman goalkeeper, Jocelyn Kramar, would end the match with three saves.
Two days later, the Pitt State women’s soccer team would suffer a defeat by the Northeastern State RiverHawks with a final score of 1-3.
“I think I did a bad job at getting our energy up early on Sunday. I felt like we were a little bit flat,” said coach Branstetter. “Yes, it was hot, and we were playing two games in three days, but that’s how our conference is set up. We have to be able to attack that head on. Right now, we’re working on different things to help us through that process. Some of that stuff is on Saturdays, some of that stuff is during warmups. We’re just trying to figure out ways to better prepare us for Sunday.”
The Gorillas would give up a goal in the 3rd minute and it would remain a 0-1 match until the second half when the RiverHawks would score another two goals in the 32nd minute and 63rd minute respectively. One bright spot of the match for Pitt State would be the first goal of the season for redshirt freshman, Chloe Ward, who scored the Gorillas’ only goal with fifty-eight seconds to spare in the match. Ward also led the team in shots with three, all of which being on goal, in just twenty-one minutes of playtime coming off the bench.
This weekend brings the Pitt State women’s soccer team’s overall record to 4-4-2 with a 0-2-2 record within conference play. The Gorillas will once again be on the road this upcoming weekend but will stay in state as they take on the Emporia State Hornets on Friday, Oct. 11, at 2 p.m. and the Washburn Ichabods on Sunday, Oct. 13 at 1 p.m. Their next home game will be the following Friday, Oct. 18, against the Newman Jets at 2 p.m.
