Photo by Camille Shaw
On Saturday, Nov. 1, the University of North Florida women’s soccer team closed out the season with a 2-0 loss at home to the Northern Kentucky University Norse (NKU). Joining the Atlantic Sun Conference in 2012, this victory puts NKU in the Atlantic Sun Women’s Soccer Championship Semifinal for the first time.
During the fourth minute of the game, NKU redshirt sophomore Aubrey Muench took the first shot and connected, putting the Norse out in front early on. Muench would end up taking a total of five shots for the game, two of them being on goal.
The Norse showed up to windy conditions at Hodges Stadium and put on a tough offensive attack scheme, taking a total of ten shots, with five of them being on goal. The Ospreys managed to fire off seven shots for the game, but only one of them was on goal and came from a midfield free kick by junior Lanie Keating.
The final blow to the Ospreys came in the second period during the fifty-second minute. Muench put up a shot-on-goal inside the penalty box, to which UNF senior goalkeeper Megan Dorsey firmly answered with a definitive stop. NKU freshman Jessica Frey followed up the save by Dorsey and slotted the loose ball into the goal.
“Obviously we are disappointed with the result,” said UNF Head Coach Robin Confer.“Northern Kentucky is a great team and congratulations to them.”
Confer is proud of her players and team. They fought back after a rough start to the season and went against the odds that predicted they’d finish sixth in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The UNF women’s soccer team ended up finishing fourth in the A-Sun with a total of five wins, twelve losses and one tie. In conference play the team broke even, achieving a .500 percentage with three wins, three losses and one tie.
“We are going to take the positives from the season, and we have a lot of young players who gained valuable experience this year, and that will only help us going forward,” added Confer.
The NKU Norse will travel to Fort Myers, Fla. to challenge the Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) Eagles on their home turf in a semifinal battle. The other semifinal match up in the A-Sun is the Kennesaw State Owls against the Lipscomb University Bisons. The winners from both of these games will face off for all the glory on Sunday, Nov. 9 at the FGCU Soccer Complex.
Gallery photos by Camille Shaw
[doptg id=”62″]Email Jordan Ferrell at sports@unfspinnaker.com
