By Staff Writer: Grace Rofii
Both ENMU’s Men’s and Women’s soccer teams fell short Thursday, September 12th, to their respective opponents. With the men’s team at home hosting West Texas A&M University (WT) and the women’s team on the road facing Western Colorado University, it was a tough matchup for both teams. The ENMU men’s soccer game saw action right away as the WT Buffs attacked early. The Buffs capitalized off of a few Greyhound errors and found the goal twice within the first 30 minutes of regulation play.
ENMU’s freshman goalkeeper Milo Paci showed great effort to contest the shots, but the Buffs found the back of the net. Another WT goal just before the end of the first half left the score 3-0 at the break. The Greyhounds were able to shut out the Buffs in the second half, but the goals in the first half proved too much to come back from. Greyhound’s junior defender Pablo Nodar put the Greyhounds on the board late in the game to avoid the shutout. Final score at Steve Loy Family Foundation Stadium was 3-1 with the Greyhounds taking their first loss of the season.
The Greyhound women’s team fought a strong battle against the Western Colorado Mountaineers, playing 85 minutes of scoreless soccer in Gunnison, Colorado. The non-conference matchup saw many opportunities at goal for both teams as the Greyhounds took a season high 18 shots and the Mountaineers took 32 shots. Greyhounds freshman goalkeeper Rosie Wilmott Joyce had a career high 11 saves, tying alumni goalkeeper Samantha Jeffries for third most in program history. Wilmott Joyce proved to be a wall at the goalline until the final four minutes of regulation when the Mountaineers found the back of the net to seal the victory against ENMU.
The women’s soccer team is still searching for their first win of the season as this matchup brings them to 0-2-1 on the season thus far. They also had their next matchup at home on Sunday, September 22nd at 12:00 pm, hosting Colorado Christian University in Portales, New Mexico.