UTSA soccer lost to the University of Tulsa Thursday night 2-1 at the Park West Athletic Complex.
The Roadrunners (6-6-2, 1-4-1 AAC) and the Golden Hurricane (6-6-2, 2-3-0 AAC) faced off in a tense match. The ‘Runners looked hopeful when the match began, as they played close to each other to remain in control of the ball, though they quickly found things hard as they backed off into their formations.
The second half was rough as players were pushing and tripping over each other all the while UTSA was trying to stop Tulsa from extending their lead by staying on top of their offense.
“We wanted to be aggressive, we wanted to press Tulsa and make them uncomfortable,” coach Derek Pittman said. “We made an adjustment getting numbers higher up the field and that obviously showed for us to outshoot them.”
After saving the ball from going out of bounds, senior defender Peyton Godbey carried the ball back to the opponents third. Godbey shot a narrow goal through a window between Tulsa’s keeper and the goal post.
The Roadrunners were determined to score again and took a total of 11 shots on goal throughout the game. UTSA came close to scoring multiple times, however, Tulsa’s goalkeeper Tatum Sanders was relentless as she managed to save 10.
The Golden Hurricanes looked unified as forward Leah Diaz scored the second goal of the game after receiving the ball from a teammate and making a shot into the Roadrunners’ goal. Weaving the ball past the ‘Runners, Diaz took a clear shot on sophomore goalkeeper Jasmine Kessler. Tulsa Defender Aniya Facen scored the game winning point for Tulsa.
“We talked a lot about what we could do to prevent anymore goals from happening and we made those adjustments,” Godbey said. “We were focusing too much on setting back and then we realized we needed to go forward and we need to keep that momentum going forward.”
UTSA will next play University of North Carolina at Charlotte at 11 a.m. Sunday at the Transamerica Field.
