The UND Women’s Soccer team had a rough first couple of games last weekend in West Lafayette, Ind.

The temperature was in the upper 80s as the young team opened its season on Friday against Xavier, and played again at Sunday’s Boilermaker Challenge Cup game against Akron. North Dakota lost both non-conference matches, 0-3 and 4-1.

This was unfamiliar territory for all of the teams, as North Dakota had never played either Xavier or Akron before. This year was the second in a row that North Dakota started its season out on the road.

The Sunday game started out slowly, with no goals until the 42nd minute, when Akron’s Megan Waskowski scored with a shot that the UND goal keeper Kristi Hestdalen got one hand on but couldn’t quite keep out of the goal.

North Dakota was troubled with mistakes throughout the game, and those breakdowns were just enough for Akron to put a few more goals in during the second period to outscore the UND women. Part of the problem was trying to shut down Waskowski, Akron’s high scorer of the day. She scored three of the team’s four points, completing her hat trick in the 82nd minute of the game.

Newly appointed head coach, Matt Kellogg, was optimistic about improving for the season.

“The game came down to three or four breakdowns by UND,” Kellogg said. “It was a couple of small things, that is we play disciplined, we don’t give up those chances. We’re just a young team and it’s better to be making those mistakes early on.”

Despite the scoreboard’s losing status, North Dakota’s girls came away from the game with a single goal by freshman Zoe Foster.

“We got that goal late because we were working for it,” Kellogg said. “It wasn’t like Akron packed it in, they were still looking for a fifth goal. We’ve shown to ourselves that when we play disciplined we can create chances.”

They also were able to fight a good mental game, making Akron’s ladies work for their goals.

Akron outshot the Green and White 13 goals to none in the first period, but North Dakota did not let up, even when it was down with a score of 4-0.

North Dakota’s shooting picked up significantly in the second half of the game, with a total of eight shots on goal to Akron’s 10.  North Dakota’s freshman Zoe Foster scored the last goal of the game with four minutes to go, preventing a shutout.

There are 15 letterwinners and six starters returning to UND from last year’s team, as well as nine incoming freshmen, and one transfer sophomore. These first games are a building period for the girls to work on their chemistry and work out the kinks.

The UND women play this weekend in Omaha, Nebraska against Creighton at 5:00 p.m.

Marie Monson is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]