Pronghorns soccer struggle to collect wins

By Lethbridge Herald on September 26, 2022.

University of Lethbridge Pronghorns’ Hailey Slobodian hustles into the offensive zone to try and make a play during Canada West soccer action against the University of Alberta Pandas at Community Stadium in September 2022 file photo

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The University of Lethbridge Pronghorns soccer team end another weekend without finding the win column.

The women’s team found themselves up 1-0 early on a goal by Hailey Slobodian in the 13th minute against the University of Alberta Pandas on Sunday afternoon at home and saw that lead slip away in a 3-1 loss.

The Pandas scored all their goals in the second half.

“We started strong and a got a goal,” said head coach Macky Singh.

“But then we kind of panicked a little and so we started chasing the game. But, you know, it’s a lot of new players and a lot of young players , a lot of inexperience. But this is what we’re trying to build off of for the future. They kept on battling on and that’s all I can ask … so it’s unfortunate, but there’s a lot of good things out of it too.”

The Horns lost third year Tory Clements and Anneke De Klerk to injuries in the match and that made the hill  much more steeper to climb for Lethbridge.

“We had to change players and (our) shape and all that stuff,” he said.

“So (we) lost a lot of experience on the park. They were playing and then they  got injured halfway through. So when you lose that kind of experience   —  both third year athletes — it does make it a challenge.”

The girls will embark on a four-game road trip over the next two weekends and the focus will be to believe in themselves and build confidence.

“There’s a lot of good moments and we just have to keep doing that and keep playing and then hopefully we can get some positive stuff in the next couple of games,” said Singh.

The Horns’ Lisa Popp, who was player of the game for the home side, thought the team tried to keep pushing and tries to score again.

“We were up 1-0 and we wanted to keep that and in the end in didn’t work out as planned,” said Popp.

Popp thinks the team needs to play like they did in the first half to see success on the road trip.

“I think that was really good and trying to continue on that performance and then keep playing and trying not to get pressed too much in the second half,” said Popp.

The women were shutout 5-0 my McEwan University on Saturday.

Their record now sits at 0-6-2.

The men’s side got the only point of the weekend in a 0-0 draw with University of Victoria on Friday followed by a 4-1 loss to UBCO Okanagan on Sunday.

UBCO got out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back and added two more in the second half.

Karim Bey score the lone goal for the Horns.

The men’s record dropped to 1-7-1 on the season.