Women’s soccer team falters in match against nationally-ranked team

Alexis Zuel, Staff Reporter

UW-La Crosse Women’s soccer dropped a conference match, 2-1, to the nationally ranked UW-Whitewater on Saturday, Oct. 11,at Veterans Memorial Field Sports Complex. UW-L has been playing both non-conference and conference games to prepare them for the WIAC conference season that is coming up in under a month. After coming off one lose and a tie, UW-L was trying to build up momentum and have it swing in their corner. They were up against a 22-ranked team, who was 11-2 overall and 4-0 in conference at the start of the match.
The game supported ALS research, and the Eagles asked fans to make donations. Fans received a free collector’s cup if they were one of the first 100 to enter the game.
The action throughout the first 45 minutes was strong. Both teams fought hard. The possession switched off between the Eagles and the Warhawks, each wanting to be the team to strike first.  Goalkeepers senior Ashley Tracey of UW-L and Jordan Myers of UW-W both had one save going into halftime.
Heading into the second half, both teams came out strong and energized, but it was the Warhawks who scored first at 59:32 with an unassisted goal. The Eagles were not going down without a fight. Coming into the final 10 minutes of the match, Warhawks scored once again at 80:28, kicking it in off of a corner kick.
Losing 2-0, the Eagles were looking for a comeback win. At 85:16, they cut the lead to 2-1 when junior Megan Gresl put the ball in the net with an assist by freshman Tina Bedwell. This is Gresl’s second goal of the season. UW-L was looking like they could do this. The crowd was pumped up. Despite their tries, the Eagles could not score again.
UW-L totaled 10 shots, while UW-W made 12 shots. Tracey and Myers ended the game with five saves each.
Tina Bedwell, freshman, said how well the team works together, “The team gets along great and we work very well together. We just need to be a little bit quicker.”
Looking for a win next game, Bedwell explained how her team prepares after a loss, “The next game after a loss we just focus on getting another win I’d say. We, for the most part, reset our minds. One loss is not our whole season, we can come back and have a home game for playoffs as long as we win the other conference games.”
The Warhawks improve to 12-2 overall and 5-0 in conference, while the Eagles fall to 3-3-4 overall and 1-1-2 in conference.