The University of North Florida (UNF) women’s soccer squad faced off with the Kennesaw State Owls on Wednesday afternoon, but with one small twist: it was originally scheduled to be played nearly a month ago.

The meeting was one of the many UNF athletic events that felt the impact of Hurricane Ian and was postponed prior to the storm making landfall. Five games later, the two teams finally got together, with defense prevailing in the long-awaited duel. 

This marks the fourth-straight clean sheet for the Ospreys, not having allowed a goal in two weeks. Unfortunately, they also haven’t scored in the past three matches, resulting in a string of 0-0 finals. While this may initially come across as boring, it’s been anything but.

The UNF backline came out extra strong on Wednesday, not allowing a single shot by the Owls in the first half of the game. In stark contrast, the Ospreys ripped off six shots throughout the opening 45 minutes of play.

This didn’t change much, though, as none of them found the back of the net. Putting this behind them, the teams got back to work in the second half, desperately searching for a goal. The Owls dialed up the intensity, letting eight shots fly during the second period of play. The Ospreys didn’t slow down either, recording seven shots of their own.

As one might have guessed, none of these proved fruitful since the game came to a scoreless conclusion. This was anything but a loss for either side, though. In a slugfest like this, coming away with a point is more than welcomed.

Following the result, the Ospreys sit at No. 7 in the ASUN standings, just two points out of the three-way tie for fourth place. In a league as competitive as this, being at the middle of the table isn’t all that bad. Just one win could propel them to a high seed in the conference tournament.

Chasing down frontrunners like Liberty and Lipscomb will be no easy task, but this strong defense could be just what it takes to contend for a title at the end of the month.

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