Pioneers earn big moral victory vs. #7 JBU

Considering how their contests have ended the last two years against John Brown University, if not the last 10-plus years, Shiloh Posey had almost nothing but praise for his Wayland Baptist women's soccer team following Friday's 1-0 loss to the seventh-ranked Golden Eagles.
 
"I could not have asked much more of the girls today. What we trained for and what we felt like was going to give us good opportunities did, and they did a good job of executing what we wanted them to do," Posey said following WBU's 1-0 loss to John Brown.
 
Wayland (8-4-1, 3-2 Sooner Athletic Conference) figured to give the Golden Eagles (10-2-1, 2-1-1) a much stronger challenge than it has the last two years when the Pioneers lost four meetings by a combined score of 24-0. In fact, the Pioneers were hoping to record their first-ever win in what was their 15^th all-time meeting against perennial power JBU.
 
The teams played even for the first 75 minutes, but John Brown's Jastin Redman notched the lone goal on a shot from 10 yards out. It was her sixth of the season.
 
Wayland got off four shots after that, but wasn't able to connect. In all, the Pioneers took nine shots, four of which were on-target. Estefany Gonzalez and Megan
Attenborough fired three apiece, with two of Attenborough's on-goal.
 
"We got a couple of nice opportunities in the first half and two or three in the second, we just couldn't make them pay off," Posey said. "Especially against a team like John Brown, you have to make your limited opportunities pay off cause not going to get that many. I wish we could have done a little better finishing those opportunities, but the effort level was very high."
 
Junior Kaitlyn Brantzeg, who got her first start in goal for Wayland in more than a month, faced 11 shots, logging six saves.
 
"We did a good job playing equally with them today," Posey said. "We had some good moments defensively and even offensively at times. We just have to do a little bit better at being efficient with those opportunities."
 
Wayland will look to end a two-game skid on Tuesday when the Pioneers face another huge challenge at Oklahoma City (6-2-2, 2-1-1). The Stars are ranked the equivalent of 30^th in the NAIA.
 
"It will obviously be another tough battle," Posey said. "It will be important for us not to let down mentally or emotionally. We got up for today's match and it took a lot out of us, but we can't go to OCU and have an average day. We'll have to be sharp and have our brains switched on. We can't wait until the game starts until we decide to be prepared."