Women's soccer suffers first loss, but barely

After going undefeated in their first four outings on the road and enjoying the best start in program history, Wayland Baptist's women's soccer team played its first home match of the year Saturday afternoon.
 
Unfortunately, the Pioneers couldn't keep their streak going and they fell to Friends University (Mo.), 2-1.
 
"It was a good battle," WBU coach Shiloh Posey said. "We knew it was going to be a tough game. It was 4-0 the last time we played them (in 2016), but we're a different team this year."
 
In fact, Wayland took a 1-0 lead on an own goal following a corner kick some 27 minutes in.
 
The Pioneers were never able to find the back of the net again, though, while Friends came up with a pair of second-half goals.
 
The first, some 11½ minutes into the second half, came after a corner and was poked in after the ball hit the side post and rolled across the face of the goal.
 
The game-winner came with 20:24 left when two Wayland defenders ran together to clear a ball. The Friends' shooter ran at them and managed to pop the ball over the head of Pioneers' keeper Kaitlyn Brantzeg.
 
Posey said WBU missed a great opportunity to tie it with some 12 minutes to go on a set-piece from 20 yards out. The ball sailed over the crossbar.
 
Friends improved to 3-1, its lone loss coming Friday night in Fort Worth against fellow Sooner Athletic Conference member Texas Wesleyan, 2-1.
 
"We knew it was going to be tight," Posey said. "(Friends) has a really strong, athletic squad.
 
"I feel like we played a decent game. We saw a couple of fixable issues. It's still early in the season. Some things happened that are definitely correctable. We for sure have to find ways to generate some more offense."
 
Wayland took a dozen shots, five of which were on goal.
 
"Overall we played OK. The effort level was not bad. We made some mistakes we have to correct, so that's what we're going to do. We have Monday and Tuesday to look at it and correct it."
 
The Pioneers return to Hilliard Field at 5 p.m. Wednesday against University of the Southwest, after the top-ranked WBU men host Our Lady of the Lake University at 2. Southwest is looking for its first win of the season following road losses on Aug. 23 to Ottawa, Ariz., 3-1 and Aug. 25 to Arizona Christian, 3-2.