The SMU women’s soccer team continued its scoreless drought from last weekend with losses to Southern Mississippi and the University of Central Florida this weekend.
The Mustangs fell 0-1 to the Golden Eagles of Southern Miss on Friday night after putting up a strong fight from buzzer to buzzer. The teams battled through a scoreless first half, but the silence was broken by the first and only goal by Southern Miss forward Sarah McFadden in the 35th minute.
McFadden caught a long center pass from teammate Bianca Ontiveros and tipped the ball off the outside of her foot into the lower right corner of the net.
In the second half, the game presented an intense offensive and defensive effort from the Mustangs, but after out-shooting the Golden Eages 9-2, SMU was unable to get the ball past Southern Miss goalkeeper Ann Fiser.
SMU goalkeeper Ashley Gunter had five saves on goal. Kimber Bailey, Brittainy Vice and Kim Peabody led the team in shots on goal with three a piece.
The loss put SMU at 5-4-1 overall, and 1-2-1 in Conference USA play, while Southern Miss improved to 6-6-0 overall, 2-1-0 in the conference and fifth in conference standings.
Sunday’s game showed a similar fate for the Mustangs in a 0-5 loss to the No. 1 Knights from Central Florida.
SMU’s offense and defense came on strong, with seven shots on the goal in just the first half compared to UCF’s three. Unfortunately, all of UCF’s shots resulted in goals.
The Knights’ first shot came in the 32nd minute when forward Danielle dos Saintos shot a pass to midfielder Brianna Schooley who shot the ball past Gunter from 16 yards out. The Knights increased their lead to 0-2 when Amanda Martorana stole a pass from an SMU defender, passed it to dos Saintos, who knocked the ball in the net when it bounced off Gunter in the 40th minute. SMU also lost Carly Phillips to a right ankle injury at the end of the first half for the remainder of the game.
The second half once again produced a strong and determined Mustang team, but it was unable to get a goal. However, UCF’s dos Saintos was on fire, scoring two of the three goals in the second half to secure UCF’s fifth consecutive win and fourth consecutive shutout.
“I thought till they scored in the second half, we looked like we were the only team that was going to score,” said head coach Brent Erwin. “When we gave up our third goal we lost the leadership, and when Phillips and Krystal Bailey are out we don’t have depth to change. I think we missed Krystal’s heart.”
The Knights’ Schooley got her second shot of the game in the 68th minute when she knocked in another pass from dos Saintos. Dos Saintos had shots in both the 69th and 74th minutes that brought her total to the hat trick.
SMU outshot the Knights on total shots on goal 13-11, with midfielder Allison Brill leading the Mustangs with three shots and Jennifer Raad and Peabody totaling two shots on goal. Gunter had two saves the entire game, while UCF goalkeeper Jennifer Manis had five, resulting in 450 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.
When asked what the team needs to do to overcome this loss, Erwin explained, “If we score one goal, 12 are coming. We just have to score that one. In the meantime, we can’t give up so many. If we’re limiting the other teams to fewer chances, not every chance can go in.”
Sunday’s game dropped SMU to 5-5-1 overall, 1-2-1 in C-USA, and ninth in conference standings. The Knights, on the other hand, remain in first with an overall record of 9-2-2, and 4-0-0 in the conference.
Contrary to the results, Erwin still feels SMU played better.
“Tactics were right. We had them marked; we controlled the game. I think we controlled more possessions, created more chances and gave them fewer chances,” Erwin said.
The Mustangs will play on the road next week with a game against the University of Alabama-Birmingham on Oct. 19 in Alabama. SMU will then travel to Tennessee to take on Memphis on Oct 21.
