The Florida Gulf Coast University women’s soccer team lost its first match of the 2014 season at the University of South Florida on Sunday evening, falling 1-0. USF outplayed the Eagles for the majority of the game.
USF outshot FGCU 15-4 and forced FGCU goalkeeper Brittany Brown to make seven saves. This was the first time that the Bulls have ever outshot the Eagles in the regular season.
The Eagles did not force the USF goalkeeper to make a single save while Brown made five in the first half.
In the 50th minute of play, the first goal came off the foot off of USF player Leticia Skeete. Brown made an initial save against Skeete but when the ball got loose from Brown’s grip, Skeete moved to it and shot to the back of the net to give the Bulls a 1-0 lead.
Julia Roddar and Tabby Tindell each earned one shot. During the 84th minute, Kaitlin Parker broke free and came up  one-on-one with the USF goalkeeper, but to no avail for the Eagles. The clock wound down without another chance for the Eagles, resulting in their first defeat of the season.
“It was obviously a disappointing result,” said head coach Jim Blankenship in a previous statement. “We didn’t play our best soccer but give credit to them. They really stretched the field and I felt like we really gave them way too much time and space on the ball. In the second half we got better, but we were up against it after they scored a nice goal. We just have to learn from this. Even though we didn’t play our best we were still in the match at the end and had a chance to equalize but their keeper made a great save.”
Next, the Green and Blue head back to Miami for a meeting with Florida International University at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 3 before returning home to the FGCU Soccer Complex at 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 7 against Murray State.