Women’s soccer team faces another tough loss.

The women’s soccer team lost a tough battle against the University of Illinois Springfield at home Friday. This is the third game in a row the team has lost. 

They fought a long 90 minute match Friday. While 20 shots were taken by the university team, only one was successful in the 2-1 match.

Eric Shoenstein, women’s soccer head coach, said the team is young and needs experience finishing tough games. The team currently has 26 freshmen on their roster. This represents around 70% of the team. 

“Young teams are going to have those growing pains, so it’s about, you know, taking the positives moving forward, and just focus on the next game and trying to learn and continue to create opportunities,” Shoenstein said. 

He said the team needs to improve finishing out the game and the rest of the season. 

“I’m proud of their efforts offensively, and we limited them to three shots defensively,” Shoenstein said.

Creating 20 opportunities to score on a goal is something that Shoenstein said he is “happy and pleased” with, but he said the team needs to work on putting the ball into the back of the net more.

Shoenstein said he remains positive as there are 11 more weeks left of the season.

One positive from this game is Savannah Grubbs, a freshman midfielder, scored her first collegiate goal with one minute remaining. 

She was able to put the team on the scoreboard, but it wasn’t enough to secure the win. 

Shoestein said he was excited for her and knows that if the team can keep their effort up, the rest of the season will be smooth sailing.

The university women’s soccer team plays Lewis University 2:30 p.m. Sunday at home.