By Kimberlee Hauss
After a hard-fought battle, the Lady Bulldog’s soccer season ended in the TranSouth Conference Tournament semifinal game against an undefeated opponent, the Martin Methodist Redhawks.
Although the team played with “a lot of heart and effort,” said Head Coach Brandon Boylan, they were outscored 2–1. Whitney Kramer, sophomore nursing major, scored off a corner kick from senior caption Kelly Bogdonavich, intercultural studies major. However, the team could not finish any other shots, thus ending their quest for the championship title.
Inconsistency plagued the Lady Bulldogs throughout the regular season as the four varsity seniors tried to lead the young team, comprised of mostly freshmen and sophomore players.
“Besides the first two games, we haven’t had the same result back to back,” Boylan said. “We never lost two in a row, never tied two in a row and -— outside the first two games — never won (two in a row).”
Boylan and Isaac Brooks, assistant coach, have strived to uncover the reason behind the inconsistency.
“From a team-chemistry standpoint, something hasn’t clicked with us on the field,” Boylan said.
Although the women’s soccer team struggled in the regular season with a 2–3–1 TranSouth record, Boylan said the post-season provided an opportunity for “new life.”
“Whatever was accomplished in the regular season now means nothing,” Boylan said. “We forget some of the deficiencies we’ve had in scoring, forget bad games and bad halves and begin re-writing the chapter of who we are as a team … to play our best possible game.”
Heading into the semifinal game of the tournament, Boylan said he was confident in the team’s ability to play a solid game against Martin Methodist.
Union was seemingly breaking through the wall of inconsistency with back-to-back wins against Freed-Hardeman and Bethel universities at the end of the regular season and start of post-season play. However, they could not pull out a win against the reigning conference champions of seven years in a row, Martin Methodist.
“We were up and down both on and off the field this year, but reality is every team ends their season with a loss, except one,” Boylan said. “I would prefer that it end the way it ended tonight, with every one giving a maximum effort and leaving it all on the field.”
