???Mid-American Conference play got underway on Friday night as the league's top two women's soccer teams squared off.
???The Bulls welcomed the Akron Zips to UB Stadium for a match that would boost the victor to the top of the standings.
???Bulls senior forward Andrea Vescio scored the opening goal 14 minutes into the match, which was the only goal in the first half for either team. Senior midfielder Nikki Wilson passed the ball in from a corner kick, allowing Vescio to net a goal for Buffalo.
???In the second half, Akron scored two of their own goals, both by junior forward Britni Back, putting the Zips (6-2-0, 1-0-0 MAC) ahead, 2-1. Both shots by Beck were shot from the left side of the field into the right corner of Buffalo's net. The Bulls could not respond, giving the victory to the Zips by that final score.
???Many opportunities to rebound were made available during the second half for Buffalo (4-2-2, 0-1-0 Mid-American Conference), but none hit the back of the net. The best opportunity came off of a no-goal call, which came with nine minutes left in the second half.
???Vescio knows that it is difficult to blame a game on a bad call, but felt that the shot should have been ruled a goal. Nonetheless, she believed that the Bulls didn't come out as strong as usual.
???"We just weren't on today; not that luck has anything to do with it, but we were pretty unlucky," Vescio said. "Maybe if we had just tried that little bit harder, it would have been our game."
???Although pleased with his team's effort, head coach Michael Thomas said that he would have liked to see a more desperate attitude out of his players.
???"It's a little bit of timely finishing, which we have been struggling with and it's a little bit, we have to be a little sharper," Thomas said. "It's anticipating that run one second earlier, making sure the ball is being slammed into the goal. It's hard to be too displeased with the team's performance tonight."
???Back, the leading goal scorer for the Zips, is coming back from season-ending knee surgery that sidelined her nine games into the season last year. With 11 points this year so far, she added four more this game, but they did not come easily.
???"Defense was pretty hard to get through. We only had a couple chances, and we finished them," Back said.
???Not much noise was made from the Bulls leading goal scorer, Lindsey Bailey. Thomas felt that when you have 11 points in the first half of the season, a player might bring some extra attention onto herself.
???"When you score five goals in the first seven games, you attract a few more defenders," Thomas said. "The attention brought to Bailey really let the other players show something."
???See Wednesday's issue for coverage of Sunday's match against Ohio.
Photo: Breadchastick / Wikimedia Commons
