Huskies soccer falls to No. 5 Lakers
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HOUGHTON -- The Michigan Tech Huskies soccer team gave up two goals in each half of a 4-0 loss to the No. 5 Grand Valley State Lakers Sunday at Kearly Stadium. With the loss, the Huskies fall to 0-6 on the season.
Despite the loss, Husky’s coach Melissa Kuhar was happy with a lot of what she saw from her team.
"It’s tough to lose 4-0, but we lost to a team that’s going to be a national tournament team," said Kuhar. "They’re good. They have potential to win our conference. (They are) super dynamic. When you get a bunch of D1 transfers, that helps.
"But no, they’re a well coached team, and we battled. We couldn’t get much going, because we had to really play the defensive side." The Lakers outshot the Huskies 28-4 in the game. Fifth-year keeper Bri Barrows made 12 saves. Freshman keeper Natalie Miller made one save for the Huskies as well, in nearly 14 minutes of action.
The Huskies trailed 2-0 after the first half, but gave up two goals in about a six-minute span in the second half that proved costly.
"We gave up two silly goals in the second half," Kuhar said. "It easily could have been a 2-0 game, or we could have tried to get one with our momentum we gained. But, it’s a tough game. I told our team, 'We build on it, we use it as motivation, and continue to improve.'"
It took the Lakers 6:24 to score their first goal. Lina Rae came up with the goal off a pass from Sonya Mehta.
From there, the Lakers kept the pressure on and kept battling to get more opportunities at Barrows. The Huskies’ keeper came up with three key stops over an 18-minute span before Michigan Tech recorded a shot on net.
Sophomore midfielder Karli Koskinen had that opportunity from the high right side of the box with 21 minutes left in the first half.
Grand Valley kept the pressure on, getting shots with 17 minutes left in the half, and 16 minutes left in the half, before finally scoring. At 30:38, Madison Peot took a shot that bounced in front of Barrows, but right to Shea Douglass, who buried it as she crashed the net.
By halftime, the Lakers held a 16-1 shot advantage. Barrows kept the Huskies in the game with nine saves.
Then the Huskies had a rough start to the second half.
It started at 47:58, as Vesna Denison found the net. Meta fed the ball to Dennison on the left side, and she fired a shot that Barrows caught, but could not keep a hold of as it traveled toward the net.
Then, at 57:03, Alex Williams buried a rebound off a penalty kick, and suddenly it was 4-0. Denison took the penalty kick. She beat Barrows with her shot, but not the crossbar. The rebound kicked straight out to Williams, who buried it.
"Bri knows she messed up on the third one," said Kuhar "She’s a fifth-year. She knows. She knows. I don’t have to remind her of that one. It happens. Things like that happen, those mistakes.
"The handball in the box for the PK, I mean, it was a handball. It’s hard when you’re trying to clear a ball, and it’s your hand semi in a natural position. But, it’s part of it. I wish we would have got the clearance off the post, but again, those are two moments we can control, and, hopefully, avoid in the future. We just build on it."
After that, the Huskies settled in and managed to get three shot attempts, but could not get another shot on net.
While the Huskies did not pick up their first win of the season, they do have things that they can be proud of, according to Kuhar.
"I think we take the whole weekend as a whole," she said. "We had a really solid half against Saginaw Friday. Then we use these moments: we had a corner, we had three shots in the second half. Even being down, we were still creating and building.
"So, we just have to take that and continue to work hard, continue to work on the little things, and then just kind of move forward from there. Games keep coming. They don’t stop. They keep coming."
Up next
The Huskies are on the road next weekend, taking on Wisconsin-Parkside Friday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, before facing Roosevelt Sunday in Arlington Heights, Illinois.