BLOOMINGTON, IN: The Ohio women’s soccer team opened the season with two road losses. Despite the results, Ohio showed improvement in each game.
Ohio coach Stacy Strauss said the team will use these two losses as a learning experience moving forward this season.
"That’s why we play these quality opponents early in the season so that we can learn,” Strauss said. “I think we clearly need to work on our 1v1 defending and continue to work on possession, at times when we played quickly and opened up the field and switched the point of attack we were very effective, so just continuing to work on that.”
Even though the results were not in their favor, the team gained confidence.
“It sounds counterintuitive but coming away oh and two, I still think there was a lot of things we could build confidence from,” she said. “We have a young team and we want to continue to make sure they remain confident and keep their heads up and I think that’s due to the leadership we have and just the enthusiasm of the younger players, they’re a competitive group, they’re young and they’re hungry so I think we build from here.”
Ohio opened its season with a 1-0 loss at Wright State. The Bobcats controlled the tempo for most of the first half. In the second half, both sides had chances but were denied until the 87th minute, when Wright State forward Emilie Fillion scored the winning goal.
The stymied Bobcats offense posted its first two goals of the season before losing to Indiana 4-2. The Hoosiers showed speed and toughness and easily gained access to Ohio’s final third. Bobcats goalkeeper Mattie Liston was tested early on, making four saves for Ohio in the first half. Indiana had 20 shots in the game and Liston ended the match with six saves.
Indiana senior forward Orianica Velasquez, fresh off a stint in the Olympics with the Colombian National team had the Bobcats on their heels all game.
Cathryn Rogers said the Bobcats made adjustments at halftime and created several chances and allowed only one more goal.
“We adjusted, just tightened up in the back a little bit, making sure they weren’t getting those counters through,” Rogers said. “On the attack (we) just got more numbers in the box in the second half.”
She said the team played a better game Sunday than they did Friday.
mk277809@ohiou.edu
