Lady Blues earn first win, finish fourth in tournament

After experiencing early-season struggles, the Lady Blues soccer team have found some momentum to build on. They picked up their first two wins of the season and finished fourth over the weekend at the Snyder Tournament.

The tournament opened with a match against Snyder. The Lady Blues put in their most dominant performance of the season. While controlling the ball for 21:33, the offense shot the ball 29 times with 17 shots on target. The Snyder defense failed to keep pace with the Lady Blues and gave up 12 corner kicks. The Lady Blues connected on 25 crossing passes in the game. The Lady Blues earned their first win of the season with a 7-0 win. Lisset Rivera scored a hat trick in the game. Morgan Dickey (2) and Roselyn Barbosa each scored goals. Barbosa’s goal came via a penalty kick. The Lady Blues also scored from an own goal by Snyder.

The second match of the tournament was against Abilene JV. While the Lady Blues did not dominate possession, they made the most of their time with the ball. While holding the ball for 48% of the match, the Lady Blues connected on 44% of their passes, including 46% of their passes in the attacking third of the field. The Lady Blues had 10 shots on target, scoring on three. Marlene Cervantes scored two goals and Dickey added another as the Lady Blues won 3-0.

“The team played very together ad a whole,” said coach Misty Mills of her team’s performance during the tournament’s opening day. “We stayed in position and were looking to pass the ball to each other. We were able to see success with finishing our shots and scoring goals.”

The Lady Blues struggled throughout the closing day of the tournament. The first match of the day was against Pampa. The Lady Blues gave up three goals in the first half. Despite a stronger showing in the second half, the Lady Blues dropped the match 3-0.
“We made too many mistakes on defense,” said Mills. “We played a much better second half (...) but couldn’t score ourselves.” After only 30 minutes to rest between games, the Lady Blues faced Abilene Cooper, who was playing its first game of the day. The lack of rest was evident in the game. The Lady Blues struggled to hold onto the ball, only holding the ball for 11:38. They struggled to pass the ball and work downfield. The Lady Blues only connected on 26% of their passes in the game, including just 21% and 20% in the middle and attacking thirds of the field. The Lady Blues fell to Cooper, 7-0.

For the full story, see the Wednesday, Jan. 29 edition of The Graham Leader.