Photo credit: Michelle Rivas
The Wolverines hoped to change their recent misfortune against Weber State, but fell short, continuing their 0-5 losing streak against the Wildcats Sept. 4.
The Wolverines dominated possession from the opening kick. They had scoring opportunities early and often, the first of which came off the foot of forward Sara Callister, but she could not connect. This became the theme of the night.
There were many great opportunities, but a mixture of bad luck and failure to execute kept the Wolverines off the scoreboard.
“It’s a difficult one to swallow,” head coach Chris Lemay said after the game. “I thought the second half we turned it around and created enough chances to try and win the game. Sometimes you just aren’t lucky.”
In the 18th minute, UVU failed to capitalize on a flurry of shots around the goal. The Weber State keeper was caught out of position, but the multiple shots from Wolverines missed off the post and again off the crossbar. A missed opportunity to add early pressure led to one of the only offensive breaks for Weber State. The Wildcats took advantage and scored in the 20th minute. The game went back and forth until halftime, and the scored remained 1-0 at the break.
At the start of the second half, UVU came out firing. Much like the first half, the Wolverines dominated possession of the ball and remained mostly in their attacking third of the field. Bre McCarter was the first Wolverine to put a shot on frame in the second half, but only to be turned away by WSU’s keeper, who gave maximum effort all night to keep our ladies out of the net.
“The best player on the field tonight was their goalkeeper by far. It was a fantastic job by [Nikki Pittman],” said Coach Lemay.
The barrage would continue for much of the second half but yielded the same results. UVU was unable to net anything, but their best chances finally came in the last 10 minutes. In the 80th minute, an over-aggressive slide tackle by a Weber State defender awarded the Wolverines a free kick from just outside the box. Megan Sullivan approached the ball, hoping to provide the Wolverines with the spark they needed to finally knot up the score, but the cross cleared the heads of her teammates. Fate would reward the ladies one last chance with only moments remaining, as Sadie Brockbank rifled a shot at the goal, but it soared just a bit too high. The final whistle blew and ended all hope of an equalizer.
The loss to Weber State marked the first home defeat for the Wolverines since September 14, 2017, when they fell to Washington State in double overtime. The team will look to rebound at the Nike Portland Invitational from September 7-9 in Oregon.
