Tim Castaneda, Sports Writer, @xTIMBOxSLICEx
In its final home game of the regular season UVU women’s soccer suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of WAC rival Seattle University at Clyde Field Saturday afternoon. Seattle becomes just the second team to emerge victorious at Clyde Field as they end UVU’s four-game win streak.
UVU found itself with its back against the wall from the very beginning as Seattle took a commanding 2-0 in the opening minutes. After the whistle blew Seattle needed just 40 seconds for forward Stephanie Verdoia to find the back of the net after receiving the pass from teammate Taylor Ritzman on the team’s first goal.
Seattle’s next goal came nearly two minutes later as Ritzman, who assisted on the earlier goal, rebounded a missed shot attempt near the right post and put the ball in to give her team a two-goal lead for the remainder of the match.
“Seattle’s a very good team and to come out and put ourselves in a hole literally 40 seconds into the match and then an even bigger hole a minute later just didn’t start us off right,” said UVU head coach Brent Anderson. “I think we had a hard time developing a rhythm today.”
The two early goals allowed by the lady Wolverines are the first goals scored by an opponent in their last 360 minutes of play. UVU last allowed a goal to be scored against them by Grand Canyon in its first home loss of the season back on October 12.
Visiting Seattle’s defensive unit denied UVU any opportunity to get back into the game as it led the team to a regular season sweep against the lady Wolverines. The Redhawks held UVU’s offensive attack to zero shots on goal en route to their second consecutive shutout.
UVU women’s soccer finishes the regular season with an overall record of 12-6-2 with a regular season home record of 8-2-2. The lady Wolverines fall to 7-3-0 in WAC play for the year.
The team next heads to Seattle for the WAC tournament where it opens play with a match versus University of Texas-Pan American Thursday, November 6 at 5:30 p.m. MT.
