The UND women’s soccer tam returned home Monday from a weekend road trip to Omaha, Neb. still looking for its first win of the season.

The team fell short against Creighton 6-0 Friday evening and was edged out by Nebraska Omaha 2-0 Sunday afternoon.

Starting off the weekend series, UND faced a strong and dynamic Creighton squad in extremely windy conditions. The teams were neck and neck, UND going into halftime down 1-0 with the only goal coming from a UND turnover in the 13th minute. However, Creighton came out strong in the second half and pulled away by recording five more goals to make the final score, 6-0.

The UND women played a hard 90 minutes, but struggled to defend Creighton’s dynamic attack in the second half.

“The execution just wasn’t there today,” UND coach Matt Kellogg said in a press release.

UND goalkeeper, junior Kristi Hestdalen, recorded 12 saves in the match, making it her 225 career save. That number puts her in third as a career save leader at UND.

The team worked its tails off Saturday between games to prepare for the next day. Kellogg made it clear that the team’s work ethic is never in question, simply adjustments and execution. Kellogg mentioned the adjustments he felt the team needed before the game against Omaha.

“We just have to adjust to the physicality of the game at this level; we’re getting pushed around too much,” Kellogg said.

It was a stifling 97 degrees when the game clock started for the UND-Nebraska Omaha game Sunday afternoon. North Dakota played a tough first half, but started falling apart in the second. UND out-shot Omaha, 7-6, in the first half without giving up a goal. It was the first game of the season that North Dakota got through the entire first half without conceding a goal.

In the second half, tides changed, and Omaha outshot North Dakota, 14-3. The first goal for Omaha was given up in the 59th minute. UND was also called for a penalty inside the penalty box, which gave it a PK to score the final goal of the game. Making the final score, 2-0.

“In the first ten minutes of the second half we controlled a lot of the flow still,” Kellogg said. “However, with it being the second game of the weekend, and not having a very deep bench, we started getting heavy legs and started playing chase the ball.”

Even though the team took the loss, Kellogg is optimistic about the future. “We took a step forward today,” Kellogg said.

North Dakota will be looking for its first win on the road against Western Illinois Friday at 3 p.m. Western Illinois is a non-conference team with 2-2 record, presenting a good match for the North Dakota squad. The team will then travel to Ames, Iowa to face Iowa State Sunday at noon.

Allison Moore is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at allison.h.moore@my.und.edu