Women’s soccer falls short at Whitewater

The UW-Eau Claire women’s soccer team outshot host UW-Whitewater Saturday night, but it still wasn’t enough as the Warhawks remained unbeaten with a 2-0 win.

The Warhawks scored in the 27th minute and again in the 67th. Although the Blugolds outshot the Warhawks 12-8, they failed to get any past Whitewater’s junior goalie, Jordan Myers.

“That’s the story of our season right there, to be honest with you,” head coach Sean Yengo said.

He added, the team did a lot of great things on the attack, but when greatness was called for, the team wasn’t brave or courageous enough in the critical moments.

“Once we get better in that part of the game, we’ll start winning on a regular basis,” Yengo said.

Myers averages .93 goals allowed per game, which is the exact average of senior Blugold goalie, Nina Behrenbrinker.

Eau Claire’s sophomore forward Caroline Henderson recorded four of the 12 shots on goal with one of them hitting the crossbar.

“There’s nothing more frustrating,” Henderson said. She added the team has been struggling with scoring all season. She said they need to shoot for the corners, crash the box and be more aggressive.

 The team had a full week to recover from the loss and Henderson said she is thankful because the team has been stressed with school, practice during the week and games on the weekends.

After Saturday’s game, Whitewater advanced to 8-0-2 and is ranked first in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Yengo said however, they’re not unbeatable.

It was a wet, rainy day, on the opponent’s turf, with the opponent’s screaming fans, coming off a four-hour-long bus ride from Eau Claire. Excuses aside, Yengo said they had their chances and the scoreboard didn’t reflect how hard they played.

Saturday was the first of five straight road games coming up, and four of them are conference games. Yengo said they need to win those conference games.

“Every point makes a big difference in this conference. We’re behind the eight-ball right now for sure just because we only have one point in two games,” Yengo said, who added teams have to travel well in the conference, otherwise they will struggle.

The Blugolds have yet to win a conference game and sit in seventh place with a 0-1-1 record. The team is 3-3-3 overall, and they will have a chance to get their first conference win this Saturday on the road against UW-Stevens Point.