Jackrabbits suffer first loss of season to Iowa State

Justin Harned Assistant Sports Editor

Friday night’s season opener consisted of a few first time situations as the SDSU women’s soccer team tallied up their first loss of the 2013 campaign.

The Jacks fell to the Iowa State Cyclones by a final of 2-1 as Jackrabbit sophomore Dani Patterson scored her first career goal, despite playing 17 games her freshman year. Nicole Inskeep also played her first career game as a Jackrabbit.

“We had a difficult time with their athleticism, they were big, strong, and physical,” head coach Lang Wedemeyer said. “Our younger players just had a difficult time with that.”

The Cyclones went up 1-0 at the 28:15 mark in the first half as Lauren Roeling scored with assists coming from Koree Willer and Adalie Schmidt.

“I thought the first 15-20 minutes we were very good, what really hurt us was when Darci Miller got hurt and came out of the game and we lost control of the mid-field for the rest of the half,” Wedemeyer said. “I thought we came out in the second-half and played much better … we were more composed. We still had a difficult time creating chances. Their defense was solid and credit to them from keeping us from a second goal.”

SDSU went into intermission down 1-0 but scored almost instantly just over one minute into the second half as Patterson put the ball in for a goal to notch the score for her squad at one-a-piece. She was assisted by Alyssa Brazil on the corner kick into the box, which was initially headed into the ground by Diana Potterveld.

With nine returning starters, SDSU struggled to find a rhythm on offense as they attempted just four shots on goal throughout the contest. The Cyclones took a one-point advantage entering the 86:52 mark as Willer was able to make the go-ahead goal from a pass by Madi Ott in the middle of the box, ultimately putting the game out of reach for SDSU with just over three minutes remaining in regulation.

 “I feel like I’m back into last year because this is exactly what all last season was about,” Wedemeyer said. “We lost a lot of games 2-1 and this is just a repeat and somewhere along the lines our players have to mature enough to be on the flipside of that … we just hope it’s sooner rather than later.”

Potterveld recognized a familiar face on the opponents sideline as she was competing against her older sister Susie Potterveld, who plays for the Cyclones. It was the second time they have competed against each other, as it is a special occurrence in the sports world for two siblings to face off in such a high level of competition. Diana jumped at the opportunity to play against her older sister as a Jackrabbit.

“It’s hard having to lose to her in the last game, (I) definitely wanted to take it to her,” Diana Potterveld said. “She really liked the program at Iowa State … I didn’t really want to play on the same team as her but I thought it would be fun to play against her, too.”