FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — The Northern Arizona women's soccer team nearly pushed for 90-plus minutes on Sunday afternoon before sophomore
Kambree Meskill scored an unlikely goal, the first of her career, against North Dakota in the 68
th minute to lift the Lumberjacks to a 1-0 victory against the Fighting Hawks, marking their eight win of the season and third in the Big Sky.
"In the first half I thought we made it more difficult than we needed to. We created a lot of chances and we probably should have put one or two away in the first half," Head Coach
Andre Luciano said. "In the second, we turned it on and created even more opportunities and in typical soccer fashion, scored the most unlikely of goals to win the game."
Much like on Friday night, the Lumberjacks dominated the game with an overwhelming offensive attack and solid defensive performance. Even though the game was scoreless at the half, the 'Jacks recorded nine shots compared to North Dakota's two. Senior
Adrian Nixt led the attack with five shots and freshman
Paige Maling followed suit with three.
"We have to credit North Dakota because they play a very low restraining line in terms of their backs and they get a lot of numbers behind the ball, so whenever we got inline on them they always had numbers in and around the box," said Luciano. "We just need to do a better job of finishing; that was the biggest thing."
The lone goal of the game came by chance as the goalkeeper was caught out of her box on a prior play as the ball landed right at Meskill's feet. With just seconds to think, Meskill craftily chipped the ball into the net. And while yes, the Lumberjacks only capitalized on one of their 18 total shots, they created opportunities and finished the weekend 2-0.
Defensively, the freshman from Omaha, Neb.,
Taryn Benham, got her second career start in goal in
Meghan Dickmann's absence. With three total saves against the Fighting Hawks, Benham was able to lead the 'Jacks to their second shutout of the weekend and maintain what is a fantastic defensive line for the blue and gold.
"This weekend was an overall team effort," said Luciano. "We played so many players and tried to rotate as many as we could knowing that Friday night was going to be a challenge and Sunday was going to be tough. Now we are just going to take it day by day."
With this 1-0 victory, Northern Arizona improves to 8-5 overall and 3-1 in the Big Sky. The Lumberjacks will have a week of practice before hitting the road to take on Portland State and Montana, Oct. 6 and Oct. 8, respectively. Next weekend will mark the midway point of conference as the 'Jacks will have just four games left following the road trip.
