Breann Lujan-Halcon
blujanha@uwyo.edu
Cowgirls spoil rams season closer, take border war
Cowgirl soccer closed out their regular season with a win over the Colorado State Rams Friday. The 2-1 victory marked the third Cowgirl border war victory in a row and the third year the Cowgirls qualified for Mountain West Playoffs. Wyoming secured the number four seed.
“It’s always a battle when you play in a Border War,” Cowgirl soccer head coach Pete Cuadrado told gowyo.com. “The girls came out with great tenacity and followed the game plan.”
The Cowgirls struck early against the Rams, taking the advantage only a minute into play. Junior forward Anne Hinman connected a pass to sophomore forward Kaitlyn Lomsnes across the field for Lomsnes to play it into the right corner of the goal giving the Cowgirls a 1-0 leg up.
The goal was Lomsnes’ second goal of the season, her first being the week before versus Utah State.
Freshman defender Alyssa Murray gave the Cowgirls their second and final goal in the 25th minute of the first half. A free kick awarded to Wyoming was taken by sophomore forward Shania Ashori who found Murray in the box for the header into goal. It was Murray’s second goal as a Cowgirl.
Ashouri, tallying 83 minutes led the Cowgirls 10 shots with four shots of her own, two on goal. Ashouri leads the Cowgirls stat sheets with nine goals, seven assists and 65 shots for the season.
Out of the 25 players CSU played they only managed 8 shots over the 90-minute match. The first 45-minute half the Cowgirls held the Rams to one shot. The last seven came in the second half, as did the lone goal for CSU.
In the 86th minute the Rams took the scoreboard on a putback originally deflected by Wyoming freshman keeper Cassidy Entsminger.
Entsminger played the full 90-minute match and had three saves. Ensminger totals 38 saves for the season.
“It felt good to seal our spot in the conference tournament,” Coach Cuadrado said. “The credit goes to the team and their never say die attitude. We plan to use this momentum as we head to San Diego next week.”
Cowgirl soccer will head out to San Diego, California and be back in action Tuesday for the Mountain West Championship Tournament. Wyoming will face the number five seed, Colorado College in the quarterfinals scheduled to kick off at 8 p.m. MT. The winner will go on to face the number one seed San Diego State in the semifinals Thursday.
