Box Score
By all appearances, it looked like Tuesday's Sooner Athletic Conference match against Texas Wesleyan would be a good one for the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team. The Pioneers were looking good in their pink jerseys on Cancer Awareness Day, and they were looking even better when
Emarie Holland scored just 4½ minutes in to give Wayland the early upper hand at J.V. Hilliard Field.
Things went downhill after that, however.
Texas Wesleyan's Jessica Watton tied it up on a deflected goal following a somersault throw-in by Alexis Michaelkovich close to the 19-minute mark, then Watton notched her 12
th goal of the season on a header following a corner kick 15 minutes into the second half. Wayland, meanwhile, never scored after Holland's early one, and the Pioneers fell to the Lady Rams, 2-1.
"On all fronts, I just don't think we got it done tonight," WBU coach
Shiloh Posey said.
Posey said Holland's 14
th goal, which extended her school record for most in a season, was a good start for Wayland (10-6, 5-3 SAC), but may have been a bit misleading.
"I thought we started a bit slow and were able to take advantage of an opportunity that was given to us," he said. "You would think that might have given us a push to continue to play well. I feel like it helped us for a little while, but for some reason we just had a bad night."
Both Wayland and Wesleyan (10-2-2, 4-2-1) finished with nine shots and four shots on goal.
Haley Reiser,
Zoe Benson and
Jessica Bell had the Pioneers' other on-target shots.
Posey said the Pioneers appeared drained mentally and physically on Tuesday.
"I don't know if our mental preparation caused our physical struggles, or if physically we struggled and that brought our mentality down," he said. "Whatever it was – tired minds, tired bodies, a combination of both – we struggled."
The coach kept waiting for his team to get it together.
"The girls have done a god job throughout the year of responding to bad situations. I had complete confidence we could come back and win that game. But the drive didn't come back. We struggled."
Wayland, which has dropped consecutive matches for the first time all season, plays its final regular-season home match at 1 p.m. Saturday against Oklahoma Baptist (9-5, 7-1), which is leading the conference after knocking off No. 20 Oklahoma City, 2-1, in Shawnee on Tuesday. The Pioneers end the regular season a week later in Bethany, Okla., against Southwestern Christian (8-5-1, 2-4).
"We have to go back to the things that got us here: hard work, quick movements, lots of encouragement and lots of communication. All of the little things that somehow tonight we lost the focus on."
Posey has high hopes the Pioneers will get it together for the home stretch leading up to the SAC Tournament.
"I'm hopeful that our focus returns," he said. "We have some days to practice and prepare, and we're going to go at it with everything we've got.
"We have two good opportunities to finish the season strong. We should be winning those games. OBU obviously is going to be strong and tough like they always are, and Southwestern Christian is improving, but I believe in this team."
Posey said while the Pioneers already have accomplished a lot this year, including a school record for wins in a season, he said they are "capable of so much more.
"We're capable of winning out and going into the tournament and making a big impact."
First, though, the Pioneers have to believe they can.
"If we believe we can do it, we have to show we can do it," he said. "Talk only takes you so far. We have to back our words up with action. The time for words is pretty much over. The time for action has come."
