MARTIN, TN -- The Lady Lions soccer team lost their season opener 5-1 to the Skyhawks of the University of Tennessee-Martin at Skyhawk Field on last Friday night.
An injury-depleted lion squad only had 13 players dress for the season opener. “We have 10 players that are injured right now. Several players are not in lineup right now because I want to make sure they heal up because we have a long way until the SWAC Championship. But we are looking to have them healthy soon,” said Coach Mazza.
To make matters worst,
Silvia Fuentes, SWAC Pre-season Offensive Player of the Year, was out of the game at 14 minutes and the Lady Lions bench dropped to one substitution. Another player went down in the first half which forced the Lady Lions to play with only 10 players on the field.
Kristy Martinez, a field player, was put in goal and had a fantastic showing despite only having two training sessions before the game. “Our two keepers were not in the lineup tonight, and I give Kristy a lot of credit for volunteering to play in goal. I thought she was the player of the game for us,” said Coach Mazza.
A healthy Skyhawk team played 18 players and they took advantage of the depth of their bench throughout the game. UT-Martin found the back of the net four minutes into the match. Almost 15 minutes later, a header snuck past Martinez to put the Skyhawks on top 2-0. Five minutes later UT-Martin made it 3-0 going into half time.
A mere 21 seconds into the second half, a shot 10 yards out found the back of the net, giving UT-Martin a 4-0 lead. The Lady Lions got on the board in the 74:07 mark when freshman Perri Weslosky found the back of the net from point blank range in front of the box. Junior
Taryn Wright and senior
Erika Forbes were each credited with an assist on the play.
“I am very happy for Perri scoring in her debut in college soccer. Perri has worked very hard in preseason and she worked hard for that goal,” said Coach Mazza.
“I was proud of the way we battled with the situation we were given. To be a good team, you need to go through adversity at some point during the season. In our case, we have started to season with adversity and I am confident that this will help us during the rest of the season,” said Coach Mazza.
The Lady Lions platy their next game versus the Trojans of the University of Arkansas-Little Rock on September 2nd at 7PM at Burns Park Soccer Complex in North Little Rock.
