Sept. 20, 2011 - The Concordia women's soccer team was presented with perhaps their toughest challenge of the season this afternoon in the five-time Northern Athletics Conference champion Aurora University Spartans. The Cougars were noticeably improved over previous years' battles against Aurora, but it did not change the result, a 5-0 loss that dropped the Cougars to 3-3 overall, 0-3 in NAC play.

 

Nicole Wolfe gave Aurora a 1-0 lead in the 14th minute as she pounced on a deflection in the box and beat Callie Hasselbring (Houston, TX/Cypress Ridge) at point-blank range. However, Concordia settled down and played some good soccer for a stretch after the goal and played good defense in front of Hasselbring. At the other end of the field, Alyssa Soulis (Grayslake, IL/Grayslake North) had a couple of opportunities but missed wide on one and had the other shot saved by Spartans' keeper Liz Wong.

 

The key stretch of the game came late in the first half as Aurora's Raquel Rodriguez scored two goals less than four minutes apart. Rodriguez turned and fired from 10 yards out in the 38th minute and then struck again in the 42nd minute, taking a lead pass, stepping around Hasselbring and shooting into the empty net.

 

Aurora closed out the scoring with goals in the 73rd and 75th minutes. Concordia created two late scoring chances, but Soulis' close-in shot was saved by Nicky Cardon, and Haley Graner (Waukesha, WI/Waukesha West) shot wide left in the closing minutes.

 

Concordia will travel to Fond du Lac on Saturday to tangle with Marian University.