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The University of Cincinnati women's soccer team was unlucky in its Thursday night conference road match against Memphis as they fell, 3-1.
The pace of the first half was slow with each team analyzing one another's tactics for the match, but all changed in the second half with the Bearcats (8-4-1, 2-2-0 American) scheming up a new approach.
UC's offense, which had been held to just four shots in the first half, peppered Tigers' goalkeeper Maryse Martel-Bard in the second half with 12 shots. Seven of the Bearcats' shots were on frame while two others unluckily ricocheted off the post and crossbar.
Contrary to Cincinnati, Memphis capitalized on their limited scoring chances and got a little luck from the post to net three goals in the second half.
MEM - Diamond Simpson (Kaitlyn Atkins), 62nd
Atkins serviced a corner into the box, and Simpson rose above the rest to head the ball inside the near post. MEM 1, CIN 0
MEM - Emily Adamic (Nugene Nugent, Kylie Davis), 65th
Davis passed to Nugent, who bent in a cross towards Adamic. Adamic headed the ball towards goal, and it ricocheted off the post and in. MEM 2, CIN 0
MEM - Valerie Sanderson (Nugene Nugent, Katilyn Atkins), 86th
Sanderson picked up a rebound from a Nugent shot and drills it from 15 yards out. MEM 3, CIN 0
CIN - Julie Gavorski (unassisted), 88th
Gavorski tallied her third goal in as many games by heading a uncontested ball over the keeper's head. MEM 3, CIN 1
STAFFORD'S STANCE
"Tactically, we need to be quicker with analyzing what our opponents are trying to do and figure out how we want to attack it," said head coach Neil Stafford. "It took our team too long to figure out how to attack Memphis, but they were resilient throughout the whole match. At halftime, we tweaked a few things and we generated a lot more scoring chances, but we didn't finish them. Two went off the post and crossbar, which is unlucky, but I thought we could have been more clinical with our scoring opportunities. When we score goals, we punish our opponents. Tonight, we didn't, and we got punished by a very dangerous and skilled team."
PLAYER SPOTLIGHT - Christi Mason
"Memphis threw a formation at us that we weren't really expecting to see," said senior Christi Mason. "We got tripped up the first half, but we came up with a different tactic at halftime, which gave us confidence since we knew what to do. Everyone really settled in the last 45, and we were able to put a lot of pressure on Memphis."
NEXT MATCH
The Bearcats close out their weekend road trip with a match in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Sunday afternoon against the Blue Hurricane. The match is slated to begin at 2 p.m. ET.