FARGO, N.D. - Western Illinois women's soccer (11-3-0, 3-1-0) was handed its first Summit League loss of the season 2-1 to North Dakota State (5-8-0, 2-2-0) on Friday (October 12).
"We are exceptionally disappointed with the result, an incredibly bitter pill to swallow," head coach Ted Flogaites said. "We were punished for three minutes of inattention and fair play to North Dakota State for taking their chances well. I thought Anisha Kinnarath was spectacular for them, her first touch was ridiculously good. This is a match that is tough to digest as I thought we dominated the match, made tremendous use of the width and did everything but finish on frame."
The Bison took an early lead in the 23rd minute of play when Jordyn Wallenborn got her head on a Anisha Kinnarath cross, then added their second goal minutes later when a shot was blocked and Steph Jacobson sent in the rebound.
Despite taking seven shots in the first half, two more than North Dakota State, Western was unable to earn a result until the second half of play. In the 51st minute, Jordan Walgren buried a pass from Katie Condon into the right side of the net to put the Leathernecks within one of their opponents. It was her third goal of the season and Condon's second assist.
Western's offense fired five shots following its goal, forcing the Bison keeper Sierra Bonham to make two saves, and earned seven corner kick opportunities but could not earn the equalizing goal.
"We played some lovely stuff but the final product was not up to snuff, and we need more bravery inside the box," Flogaites added. "We need our players to be consistently good. Playing a fabulous ten minutes is a far cry from putting in the requisite 90. We had long stretches of sustained pressure, but sustained pressure doesn't show up in the stats column, goals do, and we didn't produce enough goals. Our lack of guile in the box made waste of some really excellent individual performances from Jordan Walgren, Taylor Henning and Sloane Levin to name a few. We played some aesthetically pleasing futbol, but the bottom line is that we don't have the result."
Walgren paced the squad in shots with four, while Sloane Levin and Sarah Hall added three apiece. Keeper Laura Atkinson (7-1-0, 3-1-0) took her first loss of the 2012 season in net allowing two goals in the match. She tallied eight saves to Bonham's four.
The Leathernecks are back on the pitch on Sunday (October 14) at South Dakota State. The match is slated to begin at 1 p.m.
