By Gavin Lindahl
Assistant Sports Editor
The women’s soccer team walked away from last weekend’s campaign empty handed with a loss 3-1 loss to Robert Morris and 0-0 draw against Akron after two overtimes.
Although that means the Bonnies are now under .500 on the season, Coach Steve Brdarski is not completely disappointed with the weekend.
According to Brdarski, the game against Akron could have been won by either team and the Bonnies performance was enough to be proud about despite being upset about finishing without recording any points.
“When you go back to that game, we were creating a lot of chances. In the first 25 minutes, [Akron] barely got out of their half except for long clearances,” said Brdarski.
Nonetheless, the team’s loss to Robert Morris left something to be desired. Bona’s struck first early in the second half but allowed three goals all within the last 26 minutes of the match. According to Brdarski, the Bonnies will need to score more to continue to compete.
“[In Robert Morris,] we fought so hard to get a goal, and once we got the goal, we kind of toned down a bit; we thought all we needed to get was one goal,” Brdarski said. “We were all over them, and the fact that we weren’t up two or three goals was a shock. That’s what we need to take from this; that we need to convert some more of those chances.”
The only way that the squad will start to convert more chances, according to Brdarski, is to continue getting good reps on the practice.
“I’d just like to be scoring more goals, and that’s something that we’re going to be working on here in the next few weeks before we begin conference play,” Brdarski said. “We’re still dealing with injuries, a couple of players on the field are dealing with things, and we’ve had some near misses. We’re not far off. We just need to get back on the practice field, we need to do more, and we’re watching a lot of tape.”
While scoring may still be a ways off, the play of junior goalkeeper Christina Sarokon has highlighted the team’s defense with three shutouts on the season, said Brdarski.
“Three shutouts in six games – I’m happy about that,” Brdarski said. “In the Robert Morris game, she saved a penalty kick, and that’s big in itself. I think she’s done a really good job of dealing with the pressures of the game.”
According to Brdarski, all of his players have had their ups and downs early in this season, but that’s to be expected. From here, the team will aim to continue to find their groove and aim to improve.
“Right now we’re just trying to iron things out. How can we be a better team, how can we be a better group, how can we be more effective and efficient – those are the things we’re looking for,” Brdarski said. “[We’re still] giving players more minutes, grinding away and getting fitter
The Bonnies are currently away this weekend playing in the Cornell Tournament squaring off against Temple University today at 4 p.m., and then again tomorrow against VMI at 1 p.m.
