JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – In their final regular-season home match at Hodges Stadium, the North Florida Women's Soccer team fell to A-Sun leader Lipscomb 2-0 Sunday afternoon.
The Ospreys (4-9-0, 2-2-0 A-Sun) now sit in fourth place in the conference standings, while the Bisons (9-2-4, 4-0-0 A-Sun) maintain their spot in first.
"This one hurts. I'm gutted for our girls because they played well and battled. We know Lipscomb is a great team and we came out with some good energy and unfortunately gave up a goal early," said coach
Robin Confer. "I thought we had some really good moments of possession and created chances. In the second half we were knocking on the door and against the run of play their kid hits a spectacular shot, which took us a while to get going from again."
Lipscomb jumped on the board early in the eighth minute, when Arielle Hansford took a pass from Emily Rodgers into the middle of the field just inside the box, Hansford's shot went off the left post out of the reach of keeper
Susie Ford, the ball curved inwards to roll into the right side of the net.
Lipscomb pushed the lead to 2-0 in the 62
nd minute, when Alex Hickey found the back of the net with her back to the net on a half-volley just outside the box in the middle of the field.
The Ospreys had their chances throughout the match but couldn't find the net, leading in both shots (19-8) and shots-on-goal (11-4).
In the ninth minute, junior
Kayla Aritt took a nice shot at the ball, but it was saved by Lipscomb keeper Anna Buhigas. In the 23
rd minute, freshman
Krista Colubiale fielded a long cross over the middle of the field and was left one-on-one with the keeper, but she had to head the high bounce, which was saved.
In the 35
th minute, freshman
Haley Koncir took advantage of an errant clear, getting the ball towards the top-left corner of the net, but it couldn't get past the outstretched arms of Buhigas.
The Ospreys kept up the pace in the second half, in the 64
th minute, junior
Alexis Bredeau floated a corner kick into the box, the first shot by Aritt was blocked, followed by another blocked shot from junior Gabrielle Ligouri, junior
Kendall Pollock took the final shot of the sequence, missing just to the left of the goal.
In the 87
th minute, North Florida had another great chance at the net in a goal-box scramble. Sophomore
Caitlin Kader took a long shot in from a free kick, which ricocheted off of the crossbar, landing at the feet of Aritt who shot towards the right, but a Bisons defender was there on the right side of the net to block it.
"We created some chances late, but at the end of the day, Lipscomb finished their chances and that was the difference."
The Ospreys are back in action next weekend on the road, facing Kennesaw State on Friday and USC Upstate on Sunday.
For the latest news and updates on the UNF Women's Soccer Team, follow @OspreyWSOC on Twitter.
