The Kent State women’s soccer team suffered its first loss of the season, falling to Miami University 4-2 on Sunday. 

Kent State was two goals down when redshirt junior Karly Hellstrom scored her first goal of the season. Vital Kats and Dalaney Ranallo assisted to make it 2-1 after 29 minutes into the first half. 

Seven minutes into the second half, KSU’s Yasmine Hall tied the game at 2-2. It was her third goal in three matches. 

Coach Rob Marinaro said it was a great goal. 

“You have to give her much credit despite the loss,” Marinaro said. ”She has an excellent finishing touch.” 

Marinaro said the loss was disappointing, but the team can learn from it and do better. 

“As a team today, we did not defend well enough,” he said. “You cannot give up four goals in a conference game and expect to come out on top. The unified performance today was lacking. What we can do is to improve ourselves in training and come out with better performance on Thursday.”

The Flashes recorded six shots on goal, three corner kicks, 13 fouls and one offside penalties while the RedHawks had 12 shots on goal, four corners, 10 fouls and six offsides.   

“The players are very much upset,” Marinaro said. “But just like you had to leave the wins behind, we now look to the next appointment.” 

The Flashes play Ohio University Thursday at Dix Stadium.

Ignatius Ogbu is a sports reporter. Contact him at [email protected].