Iowa delivers stiff competition for Griz
8/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Soccer
The University of Montana women???s soccer team suffered a difficult 2-0 loss at the University of Iowa Friday.
Montana opened play by gaining the first corner kick of the match, but the strong Iowa City team controlled the ball in the Grizzlies??? end for the majority of the first half, outshooting Montana 10-1.
Morgan Showalter, an Iowa sophomore, opened scoring in the 23rd minute of play by rushing in from mid-field and shooting unassisted from six yards out.?? The goal slid right of Grizzly keeper Grace Harris, putting Iowa up 1-0.
Following Iowa???s goal, ??and continuing into the second half, Montana responded to offensive pressure from the Hawkeyes with a little of its own.?? Second-half shots on goal rained in from Grizzlies Frankie Brady, Kaitlyn Heinsohn and a header from Kiki Blake.
In the 81st minute of play, Iowa???s Alyssa Cosnek, after being fed by Jackie Kaeding, dribbled around Harris inside the six-yard box and scored Iowa???s final goal of the night.
Montana???s offense was unable to respond with goals of its own, though the Grizzlies made for some favorable scoring situations in the second half. Montana coach Neil Sedgwick commented, ???We had several opportunities inside the box that just didn???t work out. As a team, we showed a lot of progress from last week.?????
In spite of coming up offensively dry for the night against Iowa goalkeeper Emily Moran, Sedgwick was delighted by the defensive growth of his team in the short week since the Grizzlies??? season opener last Sunday. ???Our whole game back there was solid. We saw some impressive defensive moves at midfield from our girls.???
With so many young players on the field for Montana, Sedgwick was pleased to see promising play from his recruits (Sedgwick would play freshmen Charlotte Dugoni, Nawal Kirts and Lauren Costa the full 90 minutes of the match). ???I definitely saw some exceptional play out there, specifically from Lauren and Charlotte, but growth of the entire group is what we were looking for and it???s rewarding to see it developing in so little time.??? ??
