Posey not pleased with soccer's season-opening tie

Box Score



Coming off their most successful season in history last year, Shiloh Posey feels the Wayland Baptist women's soccer team has progressed beyond settling for ties. For the Pioneer coach, nothing short of winning is acceptable.
 
That's why Posey was anything but pleased with the outcome of Tuesday afternoon's season-opener against University of the Southwest at Hilliard Field that ended in a 1-1 tie.
 
"Obviously, that was not the way we wanted to start," Posey said. "Afterwards we talked about how good teams might get a tie out of a game when they're not playing very well, like we did today. But great teams find a way to win even when they don't play their best.
 
"We're beyond what we showed today."
 
The Lady Mustangs (1-1), who opened their season five days earlier with a 2-0 road loss to Arizona Christian, scored first when senior Vivian Cuevas's shot hit the top right corner of the goal and bounced in, giving USW its first goal of the young season 24½ minutes into Tuesday's match.
 
"We had three or four really good opportunities the first 15 minutes of the game and didn't take advantage of them," Posey said. "That kind of frustrated us a little bit. Southwest is a team if you let them hang around they're going to keep playing and take advantage of some things, and that's what happened."
 
Wayland (0-0-1) got the equalizer with 5:08 left in the match on a perfectly placed penalty kick by senior Haley Reiser. That followed a foul in the box called against the Lady Mustangs against Wayland's Jodian Morris, a junior transfer from Jamaica.
 
The Pioneers had a couple of prime scoring chances in the closing minutes to steal the win, but couldn't get them to go.
 
"It was one of those days when the things you do just weren't going together, and when that's the case the longer it happens the harder it is to stay composed," Posey said.
 
Wayland outshot the Lady Mustangs, 11-6, but only two of the Pioneers' shots were on goal compared to four for USW. Besides when Reiser connected, Annysa Plata had Wayland's other on-target kick.
 
"I wasn't satisfied with the way we played and I know the girls weren't," Posey said. "We have a different makeup (on the team) this year than last year and we're still learning each other. As those things solidify we'll get better and better.
 
"We definitely are going to work on a few things the next couple of days before we go to Abilene Christian and get it corrected."
 
The Pioneers take on ACU, fresh in the NCAA Division I ranks, at 5 p.m. Friday at Hardin-Simmons University's field due to renovations at ACU's field. The Wildcats are 0-2, having lost to the University of Tulsa and the University of Texas-El Paso, both by 1-0 counts.
 
"We'll go at it and see what kind of result we can get against ACU," Posey said. "We're going to have to find a way to get it done."
 
Wayland's next home match is at 2 p.m. Sept. 4 against Our Lady of the Lake, followed two days later by a home match against rival Lubbock Christian.