Kent State team soccer shut out twice over the weekend

Nick Walton

The Kent State soccer team has found the road a difficult place to get wins or goals.

This trend continued over the weekend, as the Flashes lost 1-0 at Pittsburgh on Friday and 3-0 at undefeated Michigan State yesterday.

The Flashes have now lost three consecutive games away from Kent and are 1-3 on the road this season.

“I don’t think we played well enough (to win),” Kent State coach Rob Marinaro said. “I believe we’re still learning, and that’s a part of the process. I think we’ve come away with a lot of positives, but at the end of the day we want to come out and get the results.”

The Flashes (2-4) were held to six shots and two corner kicks against Michigan State and committed nine fouls in the 3-0 loss. The loss marks the third consecutive game where the Flashes haven’t scored a goal.

“It’s always very frustrating to not be able to put shots away,” senior defender Cassie Seten said. “We know that there’s times that we need to capitalize and that we haven’t been able to yet.”

Despite the loses, the Flashes were able to find positives from the weekend.

“We’re actually playing quite well, and we’ll continue to go from there,” Marinaro said. “We’re not too far from where we want to be.”

Seten said the team’s leaders are continuing to encourage the team during the losing streak.

“We just try to be (motivating) and encouraging (to) just let them know that we’re so much better than this,” Seten said. “We just have to keep working hard and show through our actions that we can play to whatever level and beyond whatever level we’re playing at.”

Michigan State attempted 19 shots, 10 corner kicks and committed 14 fouls yesterday. The Spartans scored their first goal at the 22:58 mark, when sophomore forward Cara Freeman scored on a pass from junior forward Lauren Hill. Hill scored a goal of her own at the 31:55 mark off a rebound, and Freeman scored the final goal of the game at the 43:03 mark.

The loss drops the Flashes to 0-3 all-time against the Spartans.

Friday, the Flashes lost 1-0 at Pittsburgh and fell to 0-3 all-time against the Panthers. The Flashes had seven shots, three corner kicks and committed 15 fouls in the loss.

The game’s only goal was scored at the 48:38 mark, when sophomore midfielder Laura Berbert scored on a direct kick for Pittsburgh. The Panthers had 13 shots, eight corners and committed seven fouls.

Freshman Kelly Sherwood totaled 10 saves, including seven against Michigan State over the weekend.

The Flashes will now have to find a way to break their current three-game losing streak when they play at Eastern Kentucky on Friday.

“You get in the mindset of training harder and knowing what you have to do better,” Marinaro said. “We have another game this weekend, and we’ll look to prepare as well as we possibly can.”

Contact sports reporter Nick Walton [email protected].