SILOAM SPRINGS, AR: The Texas Wesleyan University women's soccer team (9-5-1, 6-1-1 SAC) suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of 18th ranked John Brown University (14-1-1, 8-0 SAC) on Thursday. With the win, John Brown secured the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season title, while the Rams will settle for second place.
"This was a tough loss tonight," commented head coach
Josh Gibbs, "but I've got to congratulate John Brown on capturing the regular season title. They deserve it. They capitalized on two misplayed balls in the back and punished us for it."
The loss also snapped Texas Wesleyan's school record of 10 consecutive games without a loss.
John Brown got around the Lady Rams' defense in the 35th minute, and Jastin Redman netted her 12th goal of the season off an assist from Sara Lachance.
The game appeared to be headed to the break with the Golden Eagles nursing a 1-0 lead, but JBU's Kristen Howell put in a huge insurance goal with 4:33 remaining in the half.
Perhaps Texas Wesleyan's best chance to score and an opportunity to change the game was negated in the 59th minute when the center referee waived off a goal to call a foul and award Texas Wesleyan a free kick from near midfield.
For the game, JBU outshot the Rams 24-12. Texas Wesleyan took eight corner kicks to John Brown's six. The foul count was 7-5 against the Rams.
Nikki Lockwood (8-3-1) made six saves for the Lady Rams, while Kathryn Huff (1-0) made three saves to preserve the shutout.
The Rams have one regular season game remaining. They will travel to Muskogee, OK, on Saturday, to take on Bacone College. That game is scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start. As the second seed in the SAC Tournament, the Lady Rams will host the 7th seed on Friday, November 4.
Ramblings
- The Lady Rams had not lost a game since September 12. Since then they had gone 9-0-1 while outscoring their opponents 35-6 and notching five shutout victories.
- The previous school record unbeaten streak was eight games in 2012.
- John Brown now leads the all-time series with Texas Wesleyan 7-1-1. The Rams are now 21-11-5 all-time in SAC play. Texas Wesleyan leads the all-time series with Bacone 11-3-3.
