This past weekend led to losses, lessons and victories for the Lady Wildcats’ soccer team.

The ’Cats went head to head against Pacific Lutheran on Saturday, October 10. With just their third loss of the season, the final score was 0-1.

Ladies on the soccer team had a general idea of the competition going into the game.

“PLU was tied with us for second going into this weekend, so they were the tougher competition,” Brianna Norris, ’16, said.

Even though the competition was tough, the lady ‘Cats still had success.

“Saturday against PLU was one of our best games, possession- wise. We passed the ball really well in small spaces and controlled the pace of the game. We were must faster and better technically,” Norris said.

With a mostly evenly matched game, the Lutes of Pacific Lutheran were able to gain the one goal they needed to win.

“They (Pacific Lutheran) took advantage of a good break away from our defense and scored in the 58^th minute,” Marisa Specht, ’16, said.

“We connected really well with each other but just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net,” Specht said.

Though Pacific Lutheran came out with the win, Linfield also had some opportunities.

“We had a couple shots on goal first half and should have been up 1-0 at half but could not put it in the net. Second half- the wind was really strong and that affected out ability to clear the ball or run up the field to attack,” Norris said.

“We had great opportunities in the opening minutes of the game with a corner kick and a free kick outside the box, but we weren’t able to capitalize,” Danielle Nurmi, ’17, said.

Immediately following the loss against Pacific Lutheran, the Lady ’Cats played on Sunday, October 11 against George Fox. Linfield had a victory of 2-0.

“Playing George Fox is always an emotional game, but we came out hard both the first half and the second half. Our strengths were finding the outside backs, making the wide runs and winning balls out of the air all over the field,” Specht said.

Using what they had learned as weaknesses from last game, Linfield team members were able to improve on a lot leading to a victory.

“Strengths of this game were that we took advantage of all throw in opportunities, while in the PLU game we gave the ball away a lot of the time on our throw ins. We played with good energy, strength and had good touches on the ball,” Nurmi said.

The Lady ’Cats were able to learn from errors made against PLU and used them to take home the win on Sunday against George Fox.

Next up, the women take on Willamette University in a home match at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 14.