Sunday afternoon the Saint Louis University women’s soccer team probably had one thing in mind: “Rain, rain, go away.”
With showers in Birmingham, Ala., came a wet, soggy soccer field. With a soggy field came a sloppy game, as the Billikens sloshed through a 4-2 loss to UAB in Birmingham in a dreary afternoon showdown.
“There was a good three inches of standing water on the field, and we couldn’t do much in terms of ball movement and passing,” said coach Tim Champion. “The water created a lot of deadballs, and pretty much every time we kicked the ball it would stop. The game pretty much came down to whichever team had the most chances after deadballs.”
UAB jumped ahead early in the game. A deadball was swooped up by the Blazers in the 10th minute and made its way to the inside of the box, where Jenny Rynders slipped it past Billiken goalkeeper Meghann Burke.
Just five minutes later, the Bills’ defense gave UAB enough room to score again and create an early 2-0 deficit. Both teams jumped at the ball in the air, but it was knocked down to the feet of Jill Knottek, who netted the goal from just four yards back.
Before the close of the half, UAB went on the attack once more to pad its lead heading into halftime. The Blazers beat the Bills to a deadball, and Tara Kidwell took one touch as she shot the ball past Burke to close the half.
The Billikens had several chances to narrow the UAB lead in the second half, taking several shots to gain offensive momentum early in the half.
The Bills were unable to cash in on any of their efforts and saw their normally solid and crisp offense dampened by the soggy conditions on the field.
In the 74th minute, the Blazers made their final attack on the Billikens. Briana McCarty took a shot against Burke and the ball was deflected to UAB’s Jessica Barr, who headed the ball into the net to push the Blazers 4-0. The goal was the Blazers’ third deadball goal of the game.
With nine minutes remaining to play, the Billikens tried to rally when Anny Lucier put the ball into the Blazers’ box and Kelly Ferguson was fouled. Jamie Perry took the penalty kick and blasted the ball in to put the Bills on the scoreboard.
Perry put away her second goal with less than one minute remaining when Jenny Kehl brought the ball up from midfield and found Perry inside.
Perry put the ball into the net with just seconds remaining in the game, cutting the score in half before the clock ran out.
Friday night, the Billikens began their weekend better than they ended it, with a 4-0 win over Memphis. Kelly Ferguson and Shannon Myers put the Bills on the board a few minutes before the end of the first half.
The ball deflected off Ferguson and landed near Myers in a crowd of defenders, and Myers chipped the ball in to score her first goal of the season.
“The game against Memphis was very physical,” Champion said. “We had to maintain our composure in order to move the ball like we are capable of.”
At the start of the second half, Christie Cigno worked her way up to the goal and dropped the ball back to Ferguson, who buried a shot just underneath the crossbar from 25 yards out.
In the 66th minute, the Billikens scored off a stroke of luck. Tressa Pecher sent the ball into the box for Mandy Trokey to shoot. Trokey’s shot deflected off Lucier into the goal to increase SLU’s lead to 3-0.
Five minutes later, Lucier notched the final goal of the match after receiving a perfect pass from Kehl she one-touched the ball past Memphis’ goalkeeper.
This weekend, the Bills will see more C-USA action, against Southern Miss on Friday at 7 p.m. and South Florida Sunday at 1 p.m. The Bills face the possibility of heading into the weekend without Megan McNiff because of her injury against UAB.
“I’m not sure how we’ll adjust (after McNiff’s injury). We will probably rotate wide backs in (to the center). Any time Megan is off the field it will impair our game,” Champion said. “These are two games we need to win at home.”
