Cowgirl’s soccer did not let anything by them as they beat Nevada 4-0 and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas 3-0 in a shutout on Sept. 26 and 28 back at the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex.
Friday the Cowgirls won by the largest margin since Oct. 2011 in a 5-1 win over Air Force.
“I’m proud of the team, proud of the effort.” said Cowgirl’s head coach Pete Cuadrado. “We had some adversity all year and just to see the effort on the field was amazing.”
Freshman forward Alisha Bass led the Cowgirls with two goals. The first goal came in the 8th minute from a converted shot from senior defender Alison Clarke that Nevada junior goalkeeper Devyn Bryar initially saved. Bass, on the rebound, recorded her second career shot as a Wyoming Cowgirl, raking in her third only ten minutes later after a second shot by Clarke that was saved, for an unassisted goal.
The Cowgirls ended the first half with a hard earned 2-0 lead. The team tallied seven shots and four corner kicks, all that went uncapitalized, in the first 45 minutes of regulation. Wyoming freshman goalkeeper Georgia Rowntree had three saves in the first half.
As in the first half, the Cowgirls struck quickly in the second half of play scoring five minutes into the half. Freshman forward Kaitlyn Lomsnes made her first goal of the season off an assist from redshirt freshman Katie Marcheso. Following the quickstrike style of the first half, the fourth goal from Wyoming came less than ten minutes after Lomsnes’ point. Senior defender Kasey Curtis took a header off a shot from Clarke to top off the Cowgirls win.
In the second half, Wyoming out shot Nevada 8-5, 14-12 respectively over the entire regulation. Ten of those 14 shots were on goal from Wyoming in comparison to Nevada’s seven shots on goal. Wyoming senior goalkeeper Alex Bohem had four saves at her turn at keep, and for the second game in a row, the Cowgirls shutout their opponent. Although Nevada tallied a total of 12 corner kicks trumping the Cowgirl’s 3, none of the kicks were converted on either side.
Sunday the Cowgirl’s showed no signs of slowing down their shutout rampage.
The UNLV Rebels, 6-3-1, and 1-1-0 in Conference play stepped into the Louis S. Madrid Sports Complex with a record of 12-3-3 against Wyoming. The Cowgirls win marked the first regular season regulated time since 2007.
“We’re just kind of getting some bounces to go our way and finish some plays off,” said coach Cuadrado. “We’ve created a lot of chances throughout the year and to finally get some to fall, the biggest difference is we’re just converting the chances that we’ve created all year.”
Lomsnes put the first points on the board for Wyoming with a steal in the box in the 17th minute that she sent right past UNLV freshman goalkeeper Jordan Sallee to the left corner of the net.
The Rebels, who took the first two shots of the game, statistically took more chances than the Cowgirls, outshooting Wyoming 12-8. The Cowgirls capitalized on more of those shots, and shot more efficiently having six of their eight shots being on goal in comparison to only fifty percent (6 out of 12) from UNLV.
Leading the Cowgirls in shots was freshman defender Claire Parker, with two shots. Parker gained the second goal for Wyoming in the 29th minute off an assist from Lomsnes.
“It was a physical game.” said coach Cuadrado. “I’m glad we didn’t back down from that physicality it’s something that we’ve learned to get the results.”
It was a high-fouling game on both sides. Wyoming had 17 fouls over the 90 minute match and two yellow cards. UNLV, not short on fouls, had 8 over the course of the game.
Rebel goalkeeper Sallee played the entire 90 minute game with three saves and allowing three goals. Wyoming goalkeepers Rowntree and Bohem split the 90 minute game as usual and each had three saves.
The third and final goal of the match came from a loose air ball that was knocked in by one of UNLV’s own for a point for Wyoming.
“We’re fighting,” said coach Cuadrado. “When things go against you, you just got to stick to the plan, you got to stick to continuing the fight the whole time, and bring the effort. The girls have done that and it’s paying off for them.”
The Cowgirls advanced to 2-0 in conference play and continued their winning streak at home 3-0, while bringing their overall record to 4-5-1.
Next week the Cowgirls hope to continue their three game win streak, on the road as they face Utah State (4-4-2) on Friday at 3 p.m. at Chuck & Gloria Bell Field in Logan, Utah and at Boise State (3-5-3, 0-2-0 MW) on Sunday at noon at Boas Soccer Complex in Boise, Idaho.
