Marshall University Athletics
@HerdWSoccer Falls to Middle Tennessee
10/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Thundering Herd women's soccer team (4-6-3, 2-3-1) dropped a Conference USA match, 2-0, against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders (4-8-1, 2-4) Sunday afternoon at Hoops Family Field.
The first half was a back and forth period of soccer between the two sides. Middle Tennessee's redshirt freshman Haley Nishimoto rang a shot off the post in the 15th minute. Both teams struggled to break the opposing teams back line. The first half finished tied at zero. Marshall totaled five shots, two on target. Freshman Jordan Sackaris led the charge with two shots of her own.
The second half was much like the first played in-between the offensive thirds. The Blue Raiders finally broke through the Marshall defense and scored the go ahead goal. Senior Angie Lai buried a rebound off a long shot from senior Courteney Gibson in the 55th minute. Nine minutes later MTSU finished another one, freshman Selera Jordan scored her sixth goal of the season by slotting the ball low and to the right of Marshall freshman goalkeeper Megan Bonelli. The Blue Raiders secured the two goal victory.
COACHES CORNER
Head Coach Kevin Long:
"I don't want to take anything away from Middle Tennessee and say that the first goal was lucky. They took a shot, our keeper made the save, and we just watched and they wanted it more. They worked harder than us, and that's all there is to it."
"I think we underestimated the team today, which we have no room to be doing. They beat us to every ball, they out tackled us. It was a disappointing show of what we can do. So when you compare the Friday night game with today's game, it's very disappointing."
"We were poor in possession and we were poor in beating them to the ball. We were just poor at different times and that combined with a terrific team effort on Middle Tennessee's part, we ended up making things a little bit easier for them, then we should have."
#STAMPEDE16
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UP NEXT
The Herd will travel to Miami, Florida on Friday, Oct 14, at 7p.m to take on Florida International University. Marshall is 2-0-1 against The Panthers in the all-time series.
