Bears Fall Short to SMU Mustangs in Dallas

Friday, September 6

Dallas, TX

4:30 PM

University of Northern Colorado

1-3-1, 0-0-0

Southern Methodist University

3-1-0, 0-0-0

Northern Colorado

SMU

9/6/2019 10:42:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score

By: Hannah Adler

DALLAS – It's not always the easiest thing to play two soccer games in a span of 24 hours, in two different states. One night in Phoenix then the next in Dallas is the situation Northern Colorado soccer faced on Friday. The Bears ended up splitting the two games in a 24 hour falling to SMU 4-0 on Friday night.

In just the 8th minute of the game the Mustangs came in with a hot goal against the Bears setting the tone of the game. When the Bears finally regained some ground, they were hit with nine total shots and three corner kicks from the Mustangs before Taylor Bray could even get a shot off.

The Mustangs scored their second goal in the 27th minute. Without any time for the Bears to get a steady flow or rhythm down in their formation, the Mustangs scored their third goal in the 33rd minute.

While the Mustangs were up you could see the shift from the Bears as an offensive team to now a defensive team. No other shots were taken by the Bears in this first half as they were desperately trying to work as a team to not let another one into the back of the net. Taylor Washington faced 17 total shots in the first half, but on a lighter side, had 2 spots on saves for her team.

Coach Barerra, "The players came out and the did what we wanted them to do, we played a little differently as we tried to absorb some of their pressure and when their team is receiving national poles, you know they're good."

With that in mind the Bears came out of halftime refreshed, re-energized, and motivated. Haley O'Nan, Kalen Niedling, and Olivia Seddon all recorded shots, two off-target and one on, to start out the second half.

Ashley Franza relieved Washington from goal and looked ready for what was to come her way. And, that was, the Mustangs responding with three shots and three corner kicks within the first 10 minutes of the second half. With a long back and forth second half, you could see how the Bears and the Mustangs grew tired out on the field. Shots from both teams were fired, many corner kicks, fouls, and lot of substitutions on both lines, but no goals. That wasn't until the last two minutes of the game when SMU player, Katia Novi, scored the Mustangs fourth and final goal to end the game.

There was a clear difference of teams from the first and second half for the Bears. Head coach Barerra said, "In the second half we played a lot better, they scored all their goals with their big stars up there in the first half, so even though we had a lot of our reserves out there, we had our team playing against their front line players holding them off in the second half."

After a great win last night and tough loss tonight Barerra said, "Overall tough day but a good day, we've still got a lot to learn. We challenged our players by going to Phoenix first, and of course it was hot both days, but I think it was a challenge that they met. As I said, we learned some things today so we'll have to get ready for those things with our home match when we are out there on Sunday."

To stay up to date on all things UNC soccer, visit UNCBears.com and follow the team on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter at @UNC_BearsSoccer.