Returning home for the women’s soccer team had mixed consequences. The team won its first Atlantic 10 match of the season in dominating fashion at Hermann Stadium with a 3-0 victory over Xavier but followed it up with a 1-0 loss against the Dayton Flyers on Sunday.
The Bills are now 1-1-1 in conference and are 3-6-3 overall. However, SLU does have four points in the conference standings, putting them in solid position after two matches.
The Bills had a fantastic game against Xavier; they scored their first goal in the 22nd minute off a free kick. Alli Reimer kicked the ball to Maddie Gebauer off the free kick, who zipped it past the Xavier goalkeeper. Gebauer’s goal was her second of the year.
The Bills scored their next 2 goals off of corner kicks. In the 42nd minute, Jenny Hummert kicked the ball into the box and Kailey Pretzlaff easily collected the ball and put it in the net. In the 59thminute, Hummert got another assist off a corner kick. This time Maddy Bush was there to score the goal, her first goal as a Billiken.
However, the Bills faced a tough task as Dayton came into town. The Flyers controlled the game early and had a few opportunities at the net, but could not convert. The Bills did not gain possession of the ball for much of the first half. The game remained scoreless going into halftime.
The Flyers, though, quickly notched their only goal off of a corner kick as Dayton’s Ashley Campbell gathered the corner kick and got the ball past the keeper.
The Bills had two chances very late in the match. The first opportunity came when Gebauer’s shot at the 87:11 mark hit the goalpost. The second opportunity came off the corner kick when the Bills nearly got the ball across the line, but did not convert. Home fans groaned for a foul in the box, which would have resulted in a penalty kick, but no call was made.
“Dayton is a tough team at the top of the conference, they have some special players going forward,” Head Coach Kat Mertz said, “I thought we were giving them too much respect and not coming out and playing like we did on Friday night.”
Mertz said that the last minute corner kick where there appeared to be a foul was a “referee’s call.”
“On Friday we scored on [a] three-set piece so I thought we might have a chance with the last minute corner kick,” Mertz said.
The women’s team will travel to Richmond, Va. on Friday to take on Virginia Commonwealth University followed by a match against Richmond University on Sunday.
“I think the schedule is a good schedule for us going forward, our goal is to make the A-10 tournament. We will take it one game at a time and VCU is next on our schedule,” Mertz said.
