Logan Harvill
This week, the Pitt State’s women’s soccer team played two games on the road against the Emporia State Hornets and the Washburn University Ichabods. Friday’s game against Emporia saw no scores within the first half until 53 minutes in when Pitt State’s Mckenna Robinson scored the first goal of the game. The Gorillas held their lead until the end of the game, winning against Emporia 1-0.
Coach Wes Branstetter was impressed with his team’s performance on Friday, stating that even though no scores were made in the first half, his team was off to a strong start.
“Friday was awesome, not just because we won, but I think we did well in all aspects. The score was really the only thing that stopped us from having a quality first half.”
Branstetter believes that his team stepped up in the second half with players Trinity Gray, Madison Monson, and Mckenna Robinson standing out.
“During the second half we came out with a good path: Trinity, center back, won a one-on-one duel and played a good vertical pass up the field to Maddie and brought it to Mckenna. Mckenna pushed into their space and had their defenders scrambling before she ended up beating the keeper.”
According to Branstetter, the Gorillas kept up this pace for the next few minutes before changing their strategy all together. Pitt State played defensively for the remainder of the game. Branstetter believes his team gave it their all for the entire duration of the game.
“We played similar for the next five to ten minutes then I think we knew if we stayed playing defensively then we could leave Emporia with a 1-0 victory. We made some changes to help defend our goal, gave up a few possessions while doing that, but we knew we’d make it difficult for them to score. It was a complete effort for 90 minutes.”
Branstetter believes the team’s greatest strength on Friday was the consistent effort put forward and their ability to stick to and execute a game plan.
“They just had consistent effort. They weren’t scared of moments and taking chances. We tried to execute our game plan as best we could, and I think what won the game for us was executing the game plan with max effort for 90 minutes.”
Goalkeeper, Jocylin Kramer, was pleased with her team’s performance in Friday’s game and believes they did a great job keeping their energy high and performing at their best level.
“I think as a team, we’re happy with our game on Friday. We did well because we came out knowing that they were going to be a tough team, but we came ready to compete at that level. I think we did a good job bringing our energy both on the field and off it.”
Sunday’s game against Washburn did not go as well with the Ichabods scoring one point in the first half and two points in the second. The Gorillas did not score resulting in a final score 0-3.
Branstetter believes the Ichabods were the highest performing team that Pitt State had gone up against. Branstetter thinks his team had trouble adjusting and performing at a high level until it was too late into the game. Additionally, the weather was working against the Gorillas in the latter half of the game as the team had to fight against high winds.
“Washburn is the best opponent we’ve played so far. Not just because they’re nationally ranked but they were national finalists last year. They are just a more mature team, but the issue for us is that we came out flat. I don’t think we competed at a high level until the second half, but at that point it was a bit too late. We had around 15 to 20 miles per hour winds working against us and that caused a lot of issues for the team as well.”
Although the game did not turn out in the Gorillas’ favor, Branstetter believes his team put in their best effort during the second half of the game considering the weather conditions and the opposing team’s skill working against them.
“At second half I think we challenged them more. Soccer tactics and changes don’t matter if we don’t put our full effort into it. Even though we conceded two goals in the second half, we gave it our best effort.”
Kramer was also disappointed by Sunday’s game results but realizes the team needs to improve on getting a stronger start. Kramer also believes that the second half of the game was an improvement with the team cooperating stronger than they had during the first half.
“On Sunday we knew Washburn was also going to be a tough team and we came out kind of sluggish in the first half which kind of put us in a hole. I think we came out stronger during the second half and I think we pushed harder as a team and played more together.”
Overall, Branstetter thinks being on the road all week has been the biggest challenge for his team but believes having this week to regroup and play a home game will work to his team’s benefit.
“Our biggest challenge as a team is just being on the road so much, the team bonding has been great. But with such a young group, and nine of our 12 games having been played on the road, it’s been a lot of travel and a lot of time on the bus. This week will be nice to regroup since we’ve got a one game week against Newman.”
