Columbia, Mo. – The Central Arkansas women's soccer program opened the 2016 season on the road on Friday night, traveling to Columbia, Missouri to battle the SEC's Missouri Tigers. The Bears led for the majority of the match, but ultimately fell to the Tigers 3-2.

Central Arkansas (0-1) grabbed an early lead when a cross from Kristen Ricks found Camille Bassett, who headed it home to put the Bears up 1-0. "We got ahold of the ball, broke their pressure and got it out wide to Kristen, who served a beautiful ball from probably 30 or 40 yards out," said UCA head coach Jeremy Bishop. "The ball found Cami at the top of the box, and she headed back to the near post, which is kind of text book in that situation. It was a great goal."

The Bears added to their lead in the 25^th minute, when Karly Kliever played a ball through the Mizzou back line towards Ashley Smith. When the back line turned to cover Smith, the ball glanced off a defender and into the back of the net, pushing the UCA lead to 2-0. "Again we were able to break it through the midfield, and KK served the ball in from the right side of the 18," said Bishop. "That's something we talk about a lot; serving it behind the back line so that they have to turn and run, and we did a great job of executing it there."

Set pieces proved to be the downfall of the Bears on the night, as Mizzou would even the score with a pair of corner kicks, the first in the 31^st minute and the second in the 73^rd. "Two of their goals were off of corner kicks," said Bishop. "The first one they served it in, it kind of bounced around and they were able to knock it in. On the second one, it seemed like a bit of miscommunication, where everybody thought somebody else was going to get it."

The Tigers found the game-winner just two minutes after the equalizer, when Sarah Luebbert worked her way through the defense and scored to give Mizzou the lead for the first time in the 75^th minute. "Their outside mid made a run at us, cleared herself just enough space, and hammered it to the back post," said Bishop. "It was a great goal, and you just have to congratulate them for that one."

On the night, the Bears were outshot 24 to 3 by the Tigers. UCA got shots on goal from Bassett and MaKayla Wilson. Anna Hughes got the start in goal for Central Arkansas, making a pair of saves and allowing a goal, while Lauren Mercuri made seven saves and surrendered a pair of goals in the second half.

Despite the loss, Bishop said the Bears did plenty to be proud of, "I think it was really good to be able to only give up one goal in the run of play in a game like that. Obviously we need to be better on set pieces, but we did a good job of limiting their chances and making them take shots from distance, and I thought the keepers did a pretty good job of stopping the shots they had a chance at. I hope this game gives us a lot of confidence. I told the girls that on any day we can compete with anyone, and we showed that. I think right now were feeling like we lost a game we should have won, but we should feel good about playing that way with a top Power-5 team and we should use it to build on."

Central Arkansas returns to the field on Sunday evening, playing host to the Trojans of Little Rock at the Bill Stephens Soccer Complex. Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM. "I think that they're going to be a very competitive team within their league," said Bishop. "We need to do a better job of completing passes so that we can give ourselves more chance, but it was a competitive game last year, and I think it'll be that way this year as well."