Despite losing 2-0 to the Milwaukee Panthers, players on the Eastern women’s soccer team and coach Jake Plant are content with the team’s performance.

Defensively, the Panthers played well, even though they allowed two goals. Plant said he was happy with the women’s perseverance even while playing behind and how well they played defensively.

“The first positive is that all the girls had fight throughout the whole game,” Plant said. “The defensive performance from the girls was very good. In those two moments, they were just quicker and it cost us two goals.”

The Panthers are now 2-1-1 on the season and are still working on their team chemistry. Sophomore defender Lindsey Carlson said their team is defensive minded and aside from those two goals, she is happy with how the team played. 

“There were good moments when we were in possession,” Carlson said. “It was our first loss of the year and it’s easy to learn from our mistakes.”

From an offensive standpoint, the Panthers had five shots compared to Milwaukee’s 14. Sophomore defender Henar Urteaga said the team needs to be more aggressive offensively but overall, it was a good performance.

“We need to be more aggressive in the box and in the corners,” Urteaga said. “I think we did a good job overall. We need to be more focused and compact, which we are working on right now.”

Urteaga also said the team is still getting used to the new players on the team. For the Panthers, there are 11 freshmen on the team.

“We are improving,” Urteaga said. “We are trying to be one compact unit and we need to get used to having the new players.”

This was the Panthers’ fourth game of the year.  Plant said he is content with where the team is and what matters the most is being ready for conference.

“From our stand point where we are trying to develop before conference,” Plant said. “We are in a very good spot defensively and the girls are committed.”

Forwards Aubrey Kahn and Mackenize Schill scored the two goals for Milwaukee. 

Adam Shay can be reached at 581-2812 or acshay@eiu.edu