ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University soccer team faced quite the task Saturday afternoon in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Wildcats were tasked with upsetting the No. 10 ranked team in the country, the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, for their first win of the 2017 season. Unfortunately, the game didn't quite follow script as St. Kate's, despite battling with UW-Whitewater for 90, fell by a final score of 4-0.
Despite the final score, the Wildcats were a formidable opponent for the nationally ranked Warhawks and nearly scored the first goal of the game just minutes in. Three minutes into the game,
Julia Rupp (North Branch, Minn. / North Branch) had beautiful chance to score for St. Kate's, but UW-Whitewater goalkeeper Sara Klimisch made a diving save to keep the score tied 0-0.
After Rupp's shot, the Wildcats tried to get the ball back into the Warhawks zone, but ended up spending a significant amount of time defending their own goal. However,
Tayler Koop (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) kept the red-hot UW-Whitewater offense off the board for the first 25 minutes of the game. Eventually, though, the Warhawks earned a corner kick and scored the first goal of the game on a header by Karina Rosales.
Sophomore midfielder
Maddie Conners (Lake Elmo, Minn. / Hill-Murray) nearly tied the game minutes later as she nearly scored on a cross in front of the net but missed just wide. Still, St. Kate's and Koop only allowed the single goal in the opening half, resulting in a 1-0 score after the first 45 minutes of play.
Unfortunately, the second 45 minutes of play weren't as nice to the Wildcats. UW-Whitewater scored three goals in the second half, two of which were scored in the first 15 minutes by Mackenzie Serbousek. Morgan Beaty scored the fourth goal at 73:14, but that didn't deter St. Kate's from trying to score in the final 15 minutes of play.
Marissa Janssen (Oakdale, Minn. / North) and
Kaitlin Machovec (Woodbury, Minn. / North St. Paul) both had chances to score in the final minutes of regulation but were unable to boot the ball past substitute goalkeeper Nina Yonan, resulting in a 4-0 loss by the Wildcats.
Five yellow cards were distributed during the game, including two to St. Kate's student-athletes. Janssen and junior back
Iryna Talkachova (Minsk, Belarus. / Shattuck-St. Mary's) both received cautions during the second half of the game for tackles. UW-Whitewater received the other three yellow cards during the game.
With the loss, the Wildcats overall record falls to 0-3-0, but they are still perfect in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) play. St. Kate's will look for its first overall and conference win of the season on Tuesday, September 12 when it travels to take on Augsburg University at 7:30 p.m. in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
