Jacks, Jags duel to draw

Justin Harned

The SDSU women’s soccer team was set to play the Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis Jaguars on a very chilly and windy Oct. 12 night at Fishback Soccer Park in its first home game in nearly a month.

Only a late goal from Christa Nyblom saved the Jackrabbits from defeat and kept the Jackrabbits’ already slim hopes to make the Summit League Tournament alive with a 1-1 tie.

In the 12th minute, Nyblom attempted a shot just outside of the box, which went wide right. The shot advantage clearly went to the Jacks as they were 7-2 in the first half and 22-3 by the game’s end. But at 30th minute, just three minutes after Nyblom’s shot on goal, IUPUI’s Ashley Doreski helped the Jaguars take an early lead by controlling a loose ball in front of the goal to make it 1-0.

After nearly making a few goals earlier, Nyblom notched up the score to 1-1, crossing into the box through two defenders on the goal in the 78th minute.

The wind was a contributing factor in Friday night’s game, gusting up to 30 miles per hour, making it hard to control the ball.

Head coach Lang Wedemeyer commented on the effects the weather can have.

“We are used to playing in it and playing with it,” Wedemeyer said. “It is certainly a factor within the game, and I think with an exception of a mistake in the first half, we managed going into the wind well, and we put them under a lot of pressure in the second half with the wind at our back.”

Courtney Higgins returned from an eight-game absence from the starting lineup due to an injured ankle on Friday night.

“It just makes senior year hard, to sit out half the season, but you know, I just wanted to make it back for the team and these girls are my best friends and we just all need to come together at the end,” Higgins said.

The Jacks will have to nearly run the table to have any kind of shot at getting into the postseason.

“We just all as a team need to pull together here at the end here and win these last four games, we have a chance then,” Higgins said.