Jackrabbits unbeaten through their last six games

By Justin harned Sports Editor

The women’s soccer team downed Drake and Northern Iowa this past weekend to improve their record to (4-2-2), improving their unbeaten streak to six.

What was somewhat of a rough start for the Jackrabbits is now beginning to turn around for the young squad. SDSU has extended their unbeaten streak to six, as they haven’t lost since Aug. 25. Handling Drake (0-5-2) last Friday night at Cownie Soccer Complex in Des Moines, Iowa defeating the Bulldogs in a 1-0 showdown. SDSU also took down the Northern Iowa Panthers in over-time fashion. Sophomore Diana Potterveld continues where she left off last season scoring the two-lone goals this weekend for SDSU pushing them further into the win column.

“It certainly feels great to get those wins, especially on a road trip,” head coach Lang Wedemeyer said. “We feel we can play even better than we did on the road.”

Throughout the season the Jackrabbits have played well keeping their opponents from scoring, but failed to put the ball in the back of the net themselves, through bad luck or just missed opportunities Wedemeyer believes they are just getting off to slow starts, like this weekend.

“At certain times of the game this past weekend we played exceptionally well,” Wedemeyer said. “We just didn’t start very well, we allowed too many chances by both Drake and Northern Iowa at the beginning of the game, but to the girls credit didn’t panic in those moments. They stayed composed and really asserted themselves as the game wore on.”

The first half against Drake proved to be a quiet one as the Jackrabbits failed to get the ball close to their opponent’s goal, which hasn’t happened too often thus far in the season. SDSU usually applies an ample amount of pressure each half of every game in their 2013 campaign. It only took the Jacks 12 minutes to get on the board when Delaney Ratcliffe found Potterveld outside the box and Potterveld delivered her first goal of the season. After Potterveld’s goal, the Jackrabbits started firing shots at UNI’s Nicole Postel, but Andrea Swanson and the Bulldogs’ defense held the Jacks from adding any more goals. SDSU led their opponent 12-8 in shot advatage by the end of regulation proving a solid start to their weekend. 

 

SDSU 1, UNI 0 (2OT)

 

To close out what has been a good weekend for Jackrabbit soccer, Potterveld rescued the Jacks in a second overtime thriller defeating the Panthers (1-6-0) in a 1-0 shutout, their third shut out win of the season. SDSU outshot the Panthers 10-5 with a good chunk of them taken in the second half (six). Northern Iowa had an opportunity to win the game early in the second overtime, but Brady Clark’s shot attempt went wide. Potterveld’s goal was her 2nd of the season. She is now tied for 10th all-time in SDSU history with five game-winning goals. 

Nicole Inskeep recorded her fifth shutout of the season, she has only allowed five goals in 778 minute played this season. The Summit League named her Defensive Player of the Week for her performance last weekend.

Wedemeyer wants to be 1-0 at the end of every Friday, proving to be a contagious expectation at SDSU as coaches within the institution believe in this philosophy – being 1-0 at the end of every game, nothing more, nothing less.

“I steal the saying from coach Stig that on Friday we want to be 1-0 and on Sunday we want to be 1-0,” Wedemeyer said. “We try to focus on one game at a time, I know that’s a cliché but it is an important aspect … We just try to get each game in and focus on the big picture that we got to be at our best during conference play.”

SDSU will play their final non-conference portion of the season next weekend at Fishback Soccer Park as they host Kansas on Friday at 6 p.m. and North Dakota on Sunday at 1 p.m.