A decisive 5-0 victory over Purdue Northwestern University and a 1-1 tie against Davenport University had the Women’s Soccer team labeled as undefeated for conference play after kicking off GLIAC on the road, over the weekend.
“I think things are finally being pieced together. Everything that we are throwing at them they’re taking in and they’re executing it,” head coach Sonia Basma said. “These things always take time so, as I’ve said time and time again, it’s going to take us a bit.”
The team faced hardship last season when their previous coach, Matt Granstrand, left the program due to a school required medical leave. Basma still sees the team as in a transitional process but some players already see an improvement from last year.
“A forward moving direction is what we’ve got going on and I don’t think that could have been said necessarily about last year,” said senior defender Allyssa Milam. “We were just fighting to survive with the coach switching and the discombobulation among the team so this is definitely a good position to be in.”
The Wildcats were ready to go against Purdue, especially freshman forward Jenna Halonen who notched four of the five goals in the match. She got her first within the first fifteen minutes of the first half and buried the Pride in the second half with three more. Milam notched the Wildcat’s second goal of the game.
“I think Purdue Northwest was one of the weaker ones for us and we knew that going in,” Basma said. “For us, it was about making sure that we capitalized on that and we put the ball in the back of the net which is what we’ve been lacking.”
The second match of the weekend wasn’t as fortuitous for the Wildcats. Neither the Wildcats nor the Davenport Panthers managed to find the back of the net despite both teams having nearly identical shots, NMU ripped 14 and DU had 15. The game ended up going into double overtime and ended a scoreless tie.
“There are still things that we continue to build on and really that’s going to be the case for the entire year,” Basma said. “I know for a fact toward the end of the year we’ll get even more into our groove but it’s definitely a work in progress.”
The Wildcats now gear up to take on the Northwood University Timberwolves and the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals, both teams the Wildcats played the previous weekend.
The Ladies managed to take it to Northwood 2-0 in their last time facing off but fell in double overtime to the Cardinals 3-2.
“We’re going to aim to win in regulation time. I think the whole team is pretty stoked,” Milam said. “We just played them so they’re a fresh opponent. We’ll have lots of family downstate so it’s going to be a great weekend.”
