For the first time this season, the Trinity Western Spartans tasted defeat as the women's soccer team lost 2-0 to the Alberta Pandas in Edmonton on Sunday.
"I was pleased with our first half; we had good possession and had some quality chances, so at halftime we felt pretty good about where we were," commented Spartans coach Graham Roxburgh.
"Then in the second half, we made a corporate defensive mistake and within a few minutes of the start of the second half, the complexion of the match had chased and now we were chasing."
Alberta's Kayla Michaels scored in the 49th minute and then added another in the 65th.
Kelti Biggs came up big for her team, stopping all 10 Spartan shots on goal.
"What disappoints me is that both goals could have been eliminated," Roxburgh said.
"Credit to Alberta, they took them nicely, but in the end we made it difficult for ourselves."
The loss dropped the Spartans to 8-1-0 on the season and it was their first defeat in Canada West league play since the start of the 2011 season. In that span, the team had gone 20-0-1.
The goals against also ended Kristen Funk's school-record shutout streak at 614 minutes.
The Spartans were in Calgary the previous day, breaking open a scoreless game with three second-half goals to defeat the Mount Royal Cougars 3-0.
Jennifer Castillo (47th minute), Krista Gommeringer (55th) and Kristen Santema (90th) scored for the Spartans.
"With the wind conditions, it was a tricky game and we had a tough start," Roxburgh said.
"We showed more life in the second half and were able to possess the all better and as usual, our back four were once again solid."
Funk made four saves for the clean sheet.
The Spartans lead the conference with 24 points, two points ahead of Victoria. The loss did drop them down one spot in the CIS rankings, from second to third.
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Trinity Western hosts the UNBC Timberwolves (0-7-3) on Friday (Oct. 12) at Rogers Field in the team's final regular season home game. Game time is 5 p.m.
