The Michigan Tech women’s soccer team played two games last weekend. The first took place Friday, against the Davenport Panthers. The Huskies wrapped up the weekend facing the Grand Valley State Lakers on Sunday.
On Friday evening, the Michigan Tech women’s soccer team took the stage at Kearly Field for their first conference game against the Davenport Panthers. Both teams entered with strong records: Michigan Tech stood 2-1, while Davenport came in at 2-1-1.
The first half remained scoreless. Bri Barrows, Michigan Tech’s goalkeeper, gave the Huskies several critical saves throughout the first half.
Davenport struck first with a goal early in the second half. Michigan Tech wasted no time in scoring an answering goal, when forward Julia Pietila found the back of the net with 28 minutes to go to tie the game at 1-1.
The game remained tied for 20 minutes as both teams fought for control, but Pietila struck again. With seven minutes left, Pietila had another unassisted goal, securing a 2-1 lead for Michigan Tech. Davenport had a late attempt to tie the game and struck at another goal, but Barrows denied it, sending the Huskies to a 2-1 victory.
“It was a good comeback win by our team, everyone put in full effort even after going down a goal,” Pietila said after the game. Head Coach Melissa Kuhar added, “It was a good team win… we are just going to play our style and that is all that matters in the big picture. This is game one, there is a lot of soccer left to play.”
On Sunday, the Huskies took an early 1-0 lead over the Grand Valley State Lakers in the first ten minutes of the game. The Lakers tied the game with 11 minutes left in the half. The first half ended in a 1-1 tie. It was a back and forth battle throughout the half.
In the first minute of the second half, the Lakers took a 2-1 lead. The half was a defensive battle that ended with only one goal. The game ended in a 2-1 loss for the Huskies to the Lakers.
After the game, Coach Kuhar said, “[I’m] proud of our team with the effort we put in; we kept it close, so I can’t complain too much about it; I would have liked a better result than a loss; it was a good game, hard-fought, energy and effort were there.”
With the loss, the Huskies record goes to 3-2. They will play next against Purdue Northwest in Hammond, Indiana, on Friday, Sep. 27, at 1 p.m.
