Playing your heart out is not always enough.
Just ask the Texas Tech soccer team, who lost Friday night to the Arizona Wildcats 2-1 while playing without a couple of its most experienced starters.
"I thought we outplayed them," junior Sarabeth Clopton said. "You are never happy with a loss, but I'm really happy with the effort we gave."
Co-captain Shannon Sims and forward Zhaleh Rezaie watched the game from the sideline, recovering from nagging injuries. Between them, Sims and Rezaie have 75 combined starts. For Sims, it was her fourth straight missed game.
Tech coach Tom Stone downplayed the significance of the missing starters and said that injuries sometimes happen and it is up to the bench to step up and do their job.
Stone made a few changes to his lineup to fill in the holes. Most notably, all-conference defender Brittney Harrison was moved up front to play the forward spot vacated by Rezaie's injury.
Harrison played forward before Stone's arrival in Lubbock. During the 2006 season, she led the team with nine goals while playing up top. When Stone came in, he moved Harrison to the back to shore up a defense that ranked near the bottom in the Big 12 Conference.
Stone has tinkered with Harrison playing forward many times though, sometimes moving her up front in the middle of the game to give the attack a boost. This was Harrison's first start at forward this season.
Stone said it is a distinct contrast to having Rezaie playing up top, because Rezaie is more of a possession forward with a good shot, while Harrison uses her speed to put pressure on the defense.
"It gives us a lot of speed and an awesome hitter up front," Clopton said. "I thought our back four adjusted well to not having her around."
Harrison helped lead a strong attack which outshot the Wildcats 15-9 for the game and 10-5 in the second half.
Despite winning the shot battle, Tech was unable to convert on any of their chances until the final minutes of the game when Clopton scored on a header off of Lauren Yelinek's free kick. By that time, Arizona already built a comfortable 2-0 lead, rendering the goal to be "too little too late."
Arizona scored its first goal 10 minutes into the second half when Tech failed to clear the ball out of their own box, giving the Wildcats' Jacqueline Broussard a shot at the goal, which she scored. Five minutes later, Renae Cueller was fouled in the box, giving her a penalty kick that she converted to give her team the two goal lead.
The Red Raiders got another strong contribution from their freshmen. Stone played six of them throughout the game and had four in his starting lineup.
Combined they took seven shots and tallied the lone assist of the night.
Stone said he has been impressed with the improvement from defender Casey McCall.
"She just keeps getting better," Stone said. "Early on she was kind of a typical freshman, a lot to learn, but she has caught up pretty quickly and now she is a solid force in the back."
McCall's defense played a key role in allowing Arizona just four shots on goal, a surprising total considering Tech was using one of their best defenders as a forward.
McCall said it has been difficult learning on the go, but believes she already is making strides.
"The level is definitely a lot higher than high school," she said. "I just came in and worked my butt off. I think all the hard work is paying off."
Sunday, the Red Raiders defeatedNorthwestern State 5-1.
Be the first to comment on this article!