Missouri falters against Long Beach State

Sunday’s loss comes after a seven-goal victory Sept. 4.

By Vinnie Duber

Published Sept. 6, 2009

No team wants to be described as inconsistent. Unfortunately for the Missouri women’s soccer team, that is exactly how they have been playing this season.

The Tigers dropped a 4-1 stunner to Long Beach State on Sunday morning, lowering their season record to 3-2.

Sunday’s loss follows a game Friday night in which Missouri dominated the Rhode Island Rams and scored seven goals — its highest number in one game since 2005.

The four goals scored on the Tigers are the most since Texas A&M defeated them 4-1 in the 2007 Big 12 Tournament and the most in a regular season game since the Aggies bested Missouri 4-2 in October 2006.

“I think we’re having a hard time being mentally tough and bouncing back from goals,” coach Bryan Blitz said. “This team was more hungry, they were more desperate. We didn’t play with a sense of urgency.”

The 49ers scored the game’s first goal with sixteen minutes remaining in the first half. Junior midfielder Lindsay Bullock scored off an assist from sophomore midfielder Shawna Gordon. That would be the only scoring in the first half, despite numerous opportunities for the Tigers, including three corner kicks and several free kicks off Long Beach fouls.

A Tiger comeback was in the works in the second half, as senior forward Kristin Andrighetto evened the score off a penalty kick with 35 minutes left in the game.

A Long Beach slide tackle foul in the box led to the kick for Andrighetto, who blasted the ball right by 49er sophomore goalkeeper Nicoline Jorgensen. It was the Missouri senior’s third goal of 2009 and the 30th of her career.

The game would remain tied for 20 minutes before the 49ers exploded for three goals in five minutes.

With about 17 minutes left in the game, Tiger senior goalkeeper Tasha Dittamore came far out of the goal to attempt to stop freshman forward Whitney Velez from scoring, but Velez kicked it by her. The ball went off the cross bar and rebounded right to Long Beach freshman forward Jenny Soza, who kicked the ball into a virtually empty net.

In the next five minutes, sophomore defender Nicole Hubbard netted two goals for the 49ers, all but assuring the upset.

“We fought back to get that penalty kick,” Dittamore said. “I made a mistake and after the mistake we went down from there. They took the game over.”

Blitz made a point after the game of telling his players the season was going to start over from this point on.

“We’re no longer going to be looked upon as the top dog,” Andrighetto said. “We’re going to be starting from the bottom and be the underdog again. Unfortunately, we put ourselves [at the top], and we couldn’t hold our spot. We’re going to have to come back and fight hard and get our spot back.”

The Tigers will be on the road until the end of the month with two invitational tournaments on opposite sides of the country.

They head to Alabama this weekend to square off against Auburn and Vanderbilt. Then they're off to Southern California the following week to battle Loyola Marymount and the nationally ranked UCLA Bruins.