The Portland State women’s soccer team had a rough start to their home campaign in the Big Sky Conference this past weekend. Despite having more chances, the Vikings lost 0-1 to Northern Colorado on Friday at Hillsboro Stadium and drew 1-1 against Northern Arizona at home on Sunday.
“Our team is taking a lot of steps in the right direction. Our work rate and our game plan worked out great. Just the finishing wasn’t great,” head coach Laura Schott said. “The most important thing right now is that we are still in the hunt to win the conference since no team has put away all their games.”
Portland State is now 6-7-2 overall and 2-1-2 in conference play. The Vikings are currently placed third in the Big Sky table with eight points from five games. They are two points behind league leaders, Northern Colorado and Weber State.
With two games left, the team is still in contention to win the Big Sky regular season championship. However, Schott believes her team could have won one or two more games so far. “But any coach that is motivated would think that he should probably have won them all,” Schott said.
Heading into last weekend’s home games, Portland State led the Big Sky table with two wins and a draw from their three conference away games and were 6-6-1 overall. The Vikings had scored a league-leading six goals from their three conference games.
Last year, the Vikings had a perfect record at home in the Big Sky conference. They won all four of their home games on their way to a program-best 15 points in the regular season. The Vikings finished two points behind Northern Arizona in the regular season.
On Friday against Northern Colorado, the Vikings dominated the first half. They had four attempts on goal compared to Northern Colorado’s two, but could not break the 0-0 stalemate. The Vikings edged out Northern Colorado 2-1 on corner kick opportunities.
“We had a lot of shots on goal in that game,” senior right back Esty Geiger said. “Our defense sometimes lacks a little bit and lets some goals in, but we couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net.”
In the second half, Portland State once again produced more chances but it was the Bears who struck first in the 66th minute through a JJ Wykstra header. Overall, the Vikings outshot the Bears 9-5, but could not get on the score sheet. This was the Viking’s first loss in the conference.
“We played a really good first half and we had some very good opportunities,” Schott said. “In the second half we fell into playing into their style, which is very direct. We don’t play our best when we play that direct.”
On Sunday against Northern Arizona, the Vikings scored in the first minute. Senior forward Kala Renard scored her second goal of the season on a cross from Geiger and a pass from junior forward Megan Martin.
Northern Arizona equalized in the 20th minute on goal from Lumberjack forward Jenna Samora, who is quickly becoming a Portland State nemesis. Samora has scored against the Vikings for three straight seasons now. The score remained 1-1 until the final whistle.
“I thought we had an outstanding performance. We had plenty of opportunities. We just didn’t get the game winner today which is hard,” Schott said. “Soccer is such a game where you can dominate the game and tie or lose and today we ended up with a tie.”
In the double-overtime game the Vikings out-shot the Lumberjacks 23-4 and led 10-1 in corner kicks. 12 of the Vikings’ 24 shots were on target. Northern Arizona’s goalkeeper Lauren Weaver had an astonishing 11 saves in the game. Viking freshman Daniela Solis led the team with five attempts on the Northern Arizona goal.
“Well, overall I think that we had 23 shots on goal and although it’s a tie, all of us felt like we lost,” Geiger said. “The effort was there. We played really good, but we couldn’t put it together all the way.”
Next up for Portland State is their last conference home game. They play against Weber State Thursday at the Hillsboro Stadium. Sunday the Vikings will play their last regular season game at Idaho State.
“All our conference games are fairly similar. Some teams are good one day and not as good the next. Our goals is to be the most consistent team,” Schott said.