It was the first cold night at Fishback Soccer Park both for the fans and for SDSU Jackrabbit offense as the Kansas Jayhawks hold them to only one goal in their 2-1 victory over the Jackrabbits.  This is the first loss for the South Dakota State women’s soccer team in six games making their record at 4-3-2 on the year.

A slip up by the Jackrabbit defense lead to an early goal as Jayhawk forward Courtney Dickerson scored on the Jackrabbit defense near the one minute mark in the first period, assisted by midfielder Liana Salazar.

“We fell asleep a little bit,” head coach Lang Wedemeyer said, “Our linesman was right there, she just misplayed it and the girl out muscled her and put it away. We have not started very well in the last couple games and Kansas penalized us for it.”

SDSU came back strong and aggressive in the second half with forward Shelby Raper scoring almost seven minutes into the second half to even the score at 1-1. The Jayhawks mid-fielder Hayley Yearout would score again in the 75^th minute of the second period to put Kansas ahead 2-1. Shelby Raper had an opportunity with 10 minutes left but could not put it away as the Kansas defense would hold SDSU to no goals in the second period.

 “We outplayed them at times, we definitely created enough chances to tie or win it,” Wedemeyer said.

Early struggles have been a problem this year with the Jackrabbits.

“We have got to start games better, it’s where it begins and where it ends,” Wedemeyer said. 

The Jayhawk defense was the big factor in the game only allowing eight shot attempts to SDSU compared to 16 by Kansas. Five of the attempts came from Ashley Williams. The Jackrabbits just couldn’t seem to get much going. This is unusual for the Jackrabbits who tended to be the aggressor in most of their match ups this year.

Although the Jayhawks did shoot a lot, freshman goalkeeper Nicole Inskeep made an impressive play that kept the score close, as she had six saves in the game, three more than Kansas goal keeper Kaitlyn Stroud. This ties Inskeep’s season high for saves, which she had earlier in the year against Iowa State University.

Looking forward the Jackrabbits want to improve their home record as it now sits at 1-3-1. 

“That’s not a very good record,” Wedemeyer said, “We’ve gotta come out Sunday with something to prove against UND for our last non conference game.”

The Jackrabbits hope to improve their home record going into the conference portion of the schedule.

“You gotta win at home and try to steal a few on the road before heading into the playoffs,” Wedemeyer said.