The Gustavus women's soccer team fell to Augsburg 1-0 on Saturday afternoon in St. Peter. Photo courtesy of CJ Siewert - Sport PiX.
St. Peter, Minn. – The Gustavus Adolphus women’s soccer team suffered a hard-fought 1-0 loss to Augsburg College on Saturday afternoon at the Gustie Soccer Field. Although the Gusties played with and challenged the MIAC title contender for the duration of the match, a goal by Molly Allen in the 74th minute proved to be all the Auggies needed to earned the one-goal victory. Gustavus drops to 1-12-3 overall and 0-7-2 in the MIAC, while Augsburg improves to 12-4-0 overall and 7-2-0 in the MIAC.
“Despite today’s loss, I’m happy with our performance,” said Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie. “Even though we’ve had some injuries late in the season that have forced some players to play in positions that they are not used to, we were able to compete and create several dangerous opportunities.”
Following a scoreless first half that saw Augsburg with a 6-3 shots advantage, the game looked to be destined for overtime as the second half progressed. After Gustavus put several shots on goal, Augsburg countered with the eventual game-winner when Molly Allen scored her second goal of the season off an assist from Carter Denison.
“Augsburg’s goal came off a fantastic individual effort by an outstanding player,” commented Burnett-Kurie,” but just :20 seconds before we created several good looks and had them on their heels. We generated opportunities to score and hung with one of the top teams in the conference – that was great to see at this point of the season.”
By the end of the game, Gustavus turned the tide and finished with an 11-to-9 lead in shots. Augsburg had the upper hand in corner kicks 4-to-1.
Rosen Granlund (So., St. Paul, Minn.) suffered the complete-game loss in net after making five saves. Augsburg’s Marissa Guillou earned the complete-match win after making six saves.
Coach Burnett-Kurie credits her team’s performance to its resolve and perseverance under difficult circumstances. “It all came down to pride and winning the one-on-one battles,” she said. “We talked before the game about winning those battles and taking pride in the fact that you’re going to take it upon yourself to win those challenges. ‘Are you going to be better than them, or are they going to be better than you?’ They went into today’s game with that mentality, stuck in, and showed a lot of Gustie pride.”
The Gustavus women’s soccer team will be back in action on Wednesday, Oct. 29 when it travels to Arden Hills, Minnesota for a 3:30 p.m. contest against Bethel University.