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Redhawks suffer first two defeats of season

Chris Hopkins, For The Miami Student

Over the past weekend, the Miami University women's soccer team suffered two losses at the feet of Xavier University and Eastern Kentucky University. The RedHawks played at Xavier on Aug. 26 and lost 2-1, then traveled to Richmond, Ky. on Sunday to play Eastern Kentucky, a game they lost in overtime, 2-1.

Against Xavier, the Red and White fell to an early two-goal deficit and could never recover. This was Miami's first loss of the season and coming into the game, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Allison Norenberg had yet to give up a goal. Alyssa Tindale and Ashton Greene were the goal scorers for the Musketeers, scoring in the 22nd and 37th minute respectively. Miami was able to score in the 42ndminute when junior Jess Kodiak scored on a penalty kick, after freshman Hailey Pleshakov was taken down at the top of the penalty box. Unfortunately, the 'Hawks were unable to score after that and ended the match with their first defeat of the season.

Two days later, the RedHawks were back on the field to play the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky (EKU). This game had a much less eventful first half than their battle against Xavier, as both Eastern Kentucky and Miami were scoreless going into intermission. The scoreless draw was broken in the 65th minute when Devon Saini of EKU scored a bullet from the top of the penalty box. Jess Kodiak was able to tie the game up again in the 78th minute. However, in extra time, Saini scored her second goal of the game, ending the match in the 94th minute.

"Both Xavier and Eastern Kentucky were dropping their back four away completely," Miami Head Coach Booby Kramig said. "This hurt us because we have speed and look for through balls and they limited those through balls. We tried to make adjustments but it's hard because we were missing a lot of players so we had a real lack of depth and we also have such a young team."

Leading scorer Jess Kodiak may have said it best when she said the team, "lacked offensive diversity, we were too predictable."

Both Coach Kramig and Kodiak have said that the RedHawks have been studying tapes of the games and have been working on the proper changes so they will not be as predictable and will be more ready for next weekend when Miami hosts the RedHawk Shootout Soccer Tournament here in Oxford.