Conway – The Central Arkansas Bears and Stephen F. Austin Ladyjacks faced off on Friday night in a battle between the winners of the past six Southland Conference regular season championships. The match lived up to the hype, with the Ladyjacks edging out the Bears 1-0.
The Bears (7-7-0, 4-2-0 SLC) got the game's first chance in the 15
th minute, when
Alex Moore fired from 18 yards out, but Ladyjack (7-6-0, 4-2-0 SLC) keeper Allyson Smith was barely able to get a hand on the ball, pushing it up and off the crossbar.
Lily Sultan would collect the rebound, but her shot would go high. UCA keeper
Lauren Mercuri would be called upon to stop shots from Caylon McMillan and Hanna Barker, before a free kick from 25 yards out led to the match's only goal. Barke rifled off a shot on the set piece, bouncing it off the UCA wall and in to give the Ladyjacks a 1-0 lead with her sixth goal of the season. Mercuri would make two more saves to keep the deficit at one at the half.
"It hit the wall, and Lauren was already starting to move based on where it was going to go but then it changed direction and there was nothing she could do to get back to it," said UCA head coach Jeremy Bishop of the Ladyjack goal. "It's just unfortunate; it seems like it's hard to score sometimes, and then for those to go in, it's frustrating."
Central Arkansas would open the second half with pressure, as
Camille Bassett fired a shot that Smith was forced to save in the 49
th minute and another just 20 seconds later, before a pair of probing chances from the 'Jacks went wide. Bassett fired high in 52
nd minute and
Ashley Smith would push a shot wide in the 75
th minute, but the Bears would be unable to find the equalizer. A late push saw attempts from
Stacia Carroll and
Kristen Ricks blocked by SFA defenders in the 85
th minute.
"On one hand, we didn't get enough good chances, but on the other hand we had two in midway through the first half, the ones from Cami in the second half, and the ball that Kristen played across that were all scoring chances," said Bishop. "I look at the game and I feel like we probably created more of the good scoring chances, but that's not what matters. You've got to get the ball in the net. They're a very good team and they put us under a lot of pressure, but I thought we weathered it well. Some games you play are tight, sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don't, and tonight it didn't, but we're competing at a good level right now."
On the night, the Bears got shots on goal from Moore and Bassett, while in goal Mercuri made five saves.
The Bears close out their home schedule with a pair of matches at the Bill Stephens Complex next weekend. Central Arkansas will host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for Senior Night on Friday, with kickoff set for 7:00 PM, before welcoming the Houston Baptist Huskies for a 1:00 PM match on Sunday.
"We have to do more of what we did tonight," said Bishop when asked what the Bears are looking for next weekend. "We have to compete, which we did very well tonight. We have to challenge for and win fifty-fifty balls, and we just have to finish our chances."
