Soccer earns third win of season against UNK

Arthur Rocha

DNP Until Photo is attached – Jo

On Friday, Sept. 20, Washburn’s soccer team hosted University of Nebraska Kearney at Yager Stadium for their fourth match of the season. UNK began dominating early in the game by exchanging passes in Washburn’s defensive field and causing trouble in the right side, especially with the speedy Kassidy Kirsch. The Ichabods had difficulty connecting counter attacks and holding the ball on offense.

It seemed like Washburn’s striker Sydney Rosemann was surrounded by three or four Kearney defenders for most of the first half. In the first half, UNK kept control of the ball the majority of the time while Washburn was only able to present dangerous attacks a few times.

Tera Lynch, with 20 minutes left in the half, passed to Paige Ledesma between the defenders. With nine minutes left in the half, Lauren Dietrick crossed the ball to Ryanne Serrone-Brown who made a shot at the goal. Both Washburn’s goal attempts were stopped by UNK’s goalkeeper. Despite low possession, the Ichabods ended the half with two shots on the goal against only one by UNK.

In the beginning of the second half, the rain picked up and the game cooled down a bit. At 37 minutes left, a UNK corner bounced back and forth between Washburn strikers and defenders inside the Ichabod’s goal box. The play was saved by Washburn’s goalkeeper Raegan Wells.

The Ichabods fired back at 33 minutes left, a deadly counter attack led by Rosemann. Rosemann received the ball on the offensive field, span around over the UNK defender and made a beautiful pass to a wide-open Mackenzie Menke. Menke connected a 35-yard score that went in the top left corner of UNK’s goal.

After the score, the Ichabods focused on defending their lead and not allowing UNK to penetrate their box. Although they had more possession, UNK was not effective in their attacks and came out of the game with their second loss of the season. Washburn soccer earned their third win 1-0 of the season.

“I think the first game was a learning experience. We have some freshman that are starting so we are young, but we realized that we are young and we need to come together to finish out the season,” said junior psychology major and midfielder Lynch.

Head Coach Davy Phillips was not completely pleased with his team performance, but remains positive that the team will continue to work hard.

“It wasn’t our best. I thought our technical execution was poor,” Phillips said. “We need to be better on the ball, just too many turnovers.”

Phillips said the team needs to be themselves in order to improve for their next game against Emporia State University.

Edited by Jessica Galvin, Adam White, Jackson Woods