The regular season ended for the Horned Frogs Saturday night with a 1-0 loss at New Mexico. Junior forward Angie Nickens, who led the team’s offensive attack with three shots, said the team played very well.
“We played with a lot of intensity,” Nickens said. “We came out, played a physical game and fought as hard as they did, but in the end they just got a lucky bounce that cost us the game.”
TCU had the first chance to score 18 minutes into the game when freshman midfielder Caroline Starns drove down the sideline until she was fouled by a Lobo defender. However, senior midfielder Moran Lavi’s kick wasblocked by New Mexico goalie Kristen Winters to keep the score tied.
Winters finished the game with three blocked shots.
The remainder of the first half was a defensive stalemate and ended with both teams attempting three shots.
The second half went much the same way until Lobo midfielder Kaela Kelly scored the game’s only goal with just under 20 minutes to go in the contest.
Frog’s goalie Katy Buchanan still had three saves despite allowing the goal to Kelly.
Kristine Sweat and Bridgette Sanchez each attempted three shots along with Kelly’s goal to lead the Lobo’s offense.
Head coach Dan Abdalla said the team still needs to improve its execution in order to improve.
“We have to take advantage of every opportunity and not give up any chances,” Abdalla said. “We just had one mental lapse which ended up costing us the game.”
The loss caused TCU to drop to 6-10 and 1-6 in the conference.
Freshman midfielder Sara Schneider said she thinks the offense could use the most improvement right now.
“Our biggest issue is scoring,” Schneider said. “We can go out there and defend in the entire game only to have it shoved down our throats in the end. So offense is the big thing that we need to work on.”
The Frogs were outshot 12-7 in the loss.
Schneider also said she doesn’t think the loss will affect the team’s confidence going into the Mountain West Conference Tournament this week.
“It wasn’t a bad loss like some of the others were,” she said. “We played good as a team but had some mental lapses every now and then. We played a pretty good game though. We’re pretty confident going into the tournament.”
Nickens said it’s time to focus on the tournament now that the regular season has ended.
“It has been an interesting year,” Nickens said. “We’ve gotten to travel to some different places, but we have to put it all behind us now, because it’s time for the tournament to begin.”
The MWC tournament will be held in Las Vegas this week with seventh-seeded TCU likely to face coach Abdalla’s former team, the second-seeded Nevada-Las Vegas Rebels, on Wednesday.