The UW-Eau Claire varsity women’s soccer team lost 1-2 against Wartburg College on Saturday, Sept. 10 after being locked up one goal apiece until over halfway through the game, after which Wartburg scored their second goal to take the lead.

Wartburg scored the first goal eight minutes into the game, but Sami Matuszak, assisted by Bailee Hyde, scored for Eau Claire and evened the score quickly four minutes later.  After the first two goals the game remained neck and neck until Wartburg managed to sneak another goal 65 minutes into the game.

Eau Claire’s current record is 1-4, but the head coach Sean Yengo and the players are optimistic about the remainder of their 2016 season.

“We’re still struggling with attacking right now,” Yengo said.  “We’re now getting to the point where we’re starting to play consistently well and every game is on opportunity for us to get better.  We work exceptionally hard and the players really understand the importance of the work we put in.”

Sophomore Hannah Jacobson, an outside defender starting her second year on the team, said the defeat on Saturday was hard to take because “the team had worked so hard all preseason.”  However, she continues to be optimistic about the season.

“We are still working out the kinks that go along with [the game] and I feel like that’s what Saturday’s game was an example of, just working out some simple mistakes.  The team has very good individual players and once all of us learn how to work together I feel like we will be unstoppable,” Jacobson said.

Jacobson also added that the team is made up of a lot of good young talent.

“The team is still fairly young and that makes it hard to communicate because we haven’t built that trust yet,” Jacobson said. “ We need to focus on communication and direction in the back as well as keeping up the intensity during our games.”

The team will be back on the field for another game next Saturday, Sept. 17 when they battle Luther College at 2 p.m. on Bollinger Fields.  The teams, based on statistics from the preseason games, seem quite evenly matched.  Luther has had, on average, triple the shots on goal that the Blugolds have had, but Eau Claire has over double the average saves per game.

The women’s soccer team conference schedule starts on Oct. 1 with an away game against UW-Platteville at 6:30 p.m. and the season will continue through the month of October.