Ags can’t find back of net at Northern Arizona, get blanked twice

The offense was there, the defense was strong and the team stuck to its game plan, yet the missing link was the Aggie soccer team failing to put the ball in the back of the net.

The Aggies finished the weekend 0-2, dropping to 1-3 on the season.

Competing in the La Quinta and Inn Suites High Altitude Classic, hosted by Northern Arizona University, the USU soccer squad dropped a 2-0 contest to UC Irvine, Friday, and fell 1-0 in overtime to host NAU Sunday.

“Losing these last couple games, I think it added some fire to our team,” Head Coach Heather Cairns said. “We’re not happy with our record. We know that we can do better.”

Going into the weekend tournament, Cairns said one of the weak areas in the loss to Texas Christian a week ago was not sticking to the game plan and that this weekend would prove whether or not the Aggies learned their lesson.

USU did stick to its game plan, Cairns said, but failed to finish on the attack.

“We didn’t play so well against UC Irvine,” Cairns said. “We gave up some bad goals as well as not getting it done in the attack. It was kind of a two-way failure. We’re still struggling to find our identity as a team.”

UC Irvine dominated in the air, making it difficult for the Aggies to maintain possession of the ball, Cairns said. USU struggled in the attack in the first half, only firing off four shots. The game was evenly matched until the 34th minute of play, when the Anteaters chalked up their first point off a Kate Berrini goal.

The Ags increased the intensity in the second half, but in the 69th minute Berrini tallied her second score of the game, sealing the Anteaters’ 2-0 victory.

Behind 2-0, USU fired nine shots in the second half, four of those in the final minutes of the game, but couldn’t execute the crosses. UC Irvine goalkeeper Danielle de Seriere racked up six saves in the game.

“(Against) Irvine we didn’t execute as well as we wanted to,” Cairns said.

Fueled by another loss on the road, the Aggies looked for a victory against NAU. The Lumberjacks outshot USU 15-13 but remained even during regulation. In the 105th minute in overtime, Lumberjack Sarah Vallen redirected the ball with her head off a free kick at midfield to score the winning goal.

“Against Northern Arizona we stuck to our game plan,” Cairns said. “We played forward quite a bit. We got a nice rhythm. Northern Arizona came down to finishing. It just came down to that final shot. We played with a great attacking mentality. It was just putting that one away.”

Though Cairns said she never likes to lose, she does feel encouraged by the progress of her team.

“It’s unfortunate that we lost because we started to look like we should,” she said. “We were so much better than Friday night, better than last week. We did so many things better except putting the ball in the back of the net, which determined the outcome of the game. It’s disappointing we lost. We feel like we took a step forward.”

The Aggies finish the fifth game of their five-game road series against Weber State, Wednesday, Sept. 12, at 3 p.m.

-seth.h@aggiemail.usu.edu