By Megan Acuna |Staff Writer|

The Coyotes women’s soccer team lost to the Seawolves of Sonoma State University in a 2-0 shutout Sunday, Oct. 7 at Rohnert Park.

The Seawolves got two goals past our Coyotes within five minutes of each other halfway through the first period. This loss brought the Coyote’s record to 6-4-2 overall and 4-4-1 in CCAA.

Head Coach Travis Clarke attributes this loss to the ladies making “a few early mistakes in the game that ended up costing us” but also adds that the Coyotes “worked very hard [and] gave a lot of effort.”

What made this game even harder for the Coyotes were the absences of their Junior midfielder Jasmine Bell and Senior forward Jani Carmona-Urbano, who were both injured during the Coyotes 3-2 overtime win against Humboldt State.

According to Coach Clarke, there is a chance that Bell and Carmona-Urbano will return to the field in their next game, but they are still uncertain if the injuries are substantial enough to prevent them from playing.

“We are fully confident that our team can win games without our injured players. We are a very good team and the players work hard,” said Coach Clarke.

Goalie Chelsey Jones played the entire 90-minute, impressively allowing only two goals against the Seawolves while racking up three saves.

The Coyotes ended the game with six shots against Sonoma and only two of them were direct shots to the goal.

Sophomore  forward Emily Mardon was the only player with two attempted shots, both of which were wide of the net.

Freshman defender Jill Wierzbicki had a header shot in the 25th minute of the game, but was saved by the Seawolve’s goalie. The other shot on goal was from Junior midfielder Carissa Kutkowski in the 70th minute.

Freshman midfielder Miranda Corneliussen and Junior defender Jillian Seminara also attempted shots during the game. Corneliussen’s attempt was a bit too high and Seminara’s shot was wide left of the net.

The ladies work hard during practices to improve their game and to create strategies to prepare for each team they play against.

“We focus a lot on preparing for what opponents we will face each weekend. Our conference is large and each team we face has different things to prepare for,” said Coach Clarke.

“We also work on individual skill development, system tactics and what we call the ‘small things’ such as set plays, attacking and defending.”

Clarke remains hopeful in the team’s abilities to gain more wins this season, but he doesn’t underestimate their competition.

“We play in the most competitive women’s soccer conference in the entire country. Wins and losses are hard to predict,” said Coach Clarke.

“Last week we beat the first place team UCSD 1-0 and then barely beat the last place team Humboldt State 3-2 in overtime. Even our last place team is very strong.”

“The creation of a competitive atmosphere (academic, fitness, [and] playing time) is how our program has started to become contender in our conference,” said Coach Clarke.

With a competitive division to compete against, the girls will have many tough challenges ahead of them.

With four games remaining in their season, they have plenty of time to make a run for first place and claim a playoff berth.