After dropping its first two conference games, the Missouri soccer team was in dire need of a bounce-back weekend to right the ship.
The Tigers got off on the right foot, defeating No. 24 Texas A&M on Saturday by a score of 1-0.
Highly-touted freshman forward Kaysie Clark scored the match’s lone goal, the first of her MU career. The goal was the highlight of a breakthrough game for Missouri, as the team scored for the first time in three games and their defense returned to its usual stout form.
But the Tigers failed to carry Friday night’s momentum over to Sunday afternoon, as the struggles on both sides of the pitch returned in a 2-1 loss to the Texas Longhorns.
“We didn’t do what we were capable of today,” sophomore midfielder Domonique Richardson said. “Texas played good but it was more of what we didn’t do than what (Texas) did do. I think we got comfortable after we scored. We just stopped fighting.”
MU got on the board first, thanks to a 25-foot blast off the foot of junior midfielder Haley Krentz in the 13th minute. Unfortunately for the home team, that lead would not hold for long, as Texas tied the game in the 22nd minute and later tallied what would prove to be the game winner in the 37th minute.
The Tigers had multiple scoring chances in the second half but were unable to put the ball in the net, something MU knew needed improvement.
“The main thing we’re looking to improve on is shooting,” freshman midfielder Taylor Grant said last week at practice. “We need to just shoot and put the ball in the net.”
The two goals this weekend were a small step in the right direction, but the offensive production is still rather underwhelming.
This past weekend’s games included, the Tigers have scored four goals in their last seven games against power conference opponents. Their 0.57 goals per game average isn’t a good sign if MU hopes to qualify for the NCAA tournament.
Missouri entered the weekend’s action ranked 69th in the NCAA’s RPI ranking. RPI ranking is a critical factor in determining the 64-team field for the NCAA tournament.
By no stretch of the imagination is Missouri’s season over, as the team currently sits at 9-5 overall and has a win over then-7th ranked Ohio State earlier this season, but the Tigers can ill-afford to drop many more games if they are going to be playing in the postseason.
If the Tigers are going to get back on the right track, coach Bryan Blitz said the practice field is a good place to start.
“We had one good day of practice, which translated to Friday,” Blitz said. “But we didn’t have two good days of practice this past week, so it’s going to be hard to have two good performances against two good teams on the weekend.”
