Mean Green soccer suffers two close losses over weekend
Akshay Mirchandani / Staff Writer
After starting the season 2-0, the Mean Green soccer team suffered a pair of losses during its trip to the Wake Forest Invitational in North Carolina. On Friday, the Mean Green went up against nationally-ranked no. 10 Wake Forest University and nearly pulled off what would have been a huge upset, but lost 2-1 in double overtime. The team bounced back to play to play Virginia Tech University on Sunday but lost 4-2.
Wake Forest
Wake Forest (4-0) took an early 1-0 lead in the first period, but the Mean Green fought back in the second period with a goal from sophomore midfielder Karla Pineda. The tied game went into two overtimes until a goal by Wake Forest’s Katie Stengel in the 105th minute sealed the 2-1 win for Wake Forest.
“Obviously it stings a bit losing on a late goal in double overtime against the No. 10 team in the country,” UNT head coach John Hedlund said in a press release. “But the bottom line is we showed how good we are tonight, and why we should be ranked in the top 25 nationally.”
Despite the loss, freshman forward Rachel Holden said that there is some benefit that comes in almost beating one of the top teams in the country.
“It does give us confidence because they’re number ten, and we did hang with them until the very end,” Holden said. “We did play well and it just didn’t fall our way that time.”
Virginia Tech
The Mean Green looked to make up for their Wake Forest loss against Virginia Tech (3-0-1), but the Hokies struck first and took a 2-0 lead. UNT tied it up with a goal from senior forward Vanessa Ibewuike and another from sophomore midfielder Lindsey Hulstein – both contributing their first goals of the season – but the Mean Green could not keep up its momentum and Virginia Tech scored twice more tocement a 4-2 win.
“We had a harder time today just getting into the flow of the game,” senior defender Kelsey Hodges said. “We got unlucky on a few calls from the refs, but we battled back and got two goals. We worked really well together – we just couldn’t seem to put the ball in the back of the net.”
Despite the loss, Hedlund said he is happy his team never quit.
“We played well enough to win today, and I was proud of my team in the way they battled back to tie the score,” Hedlund said in a press release.
The Mean Green will be back at home to play Sam Houston State on Sept. 6. The game starts at 7 p.m.
Feature photo courtesy of meangreensports.com
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