Tigers drop two at Carolina Nike Classic
The Tigers fell to No. 19 Duke and back-to-back national champion North Carolina at the tournament.
Published Aug. 31, 2010
Set to play two nationally ranked squads on consecutive days, the Tigers traveled to Chapel Hill, N.C. over the weekend, expecting their toughest challenge in years. That expectation was certainly met.
In a high-octane match-up of similar teams, the No. 1-ranked Tar Heels eventually overpowered the Tigers by a final score of 6-1 Sunday. It was Missouri's second game in the Carolina Nike Classic, after suffering a 3-1 loss to No. 19 Duke the previous day. Despite keeping the Heels off the board for the first 30 minutes, the Tigers let the game get away from them in the second half.
"I think we did great for about 65 minutes," coach Bryan Blitz said. "I was very happy about the response coming out of halftime, we weren't intimidated. We had a chance to make it 2-2 but their keeper made a great save and then from there I think we showed our inexperience. But that's why we went there, so we can grow up really quick."
A bright spot over the weekend was sophomore goalkeeper Jessica Gwin, who stopped 21 out of 30 shots on goal in the Duke and North Carolina games combined. Blitz said Gwin is having a great early season, and Gwin acknowledged that defending against that kind of competition isn't easy.
"Obviously playing the No. 1 team in the country is going to be difficult," Gwin said. "But I think my defenders did a pretty great job of making the saves for me. A lot of those shots were predictable as far as angles go. Obviously I won't see 32 shots against a team that's ranked lower than top-25, so it's definitely going to prepare me for the games to come."
The loss lowered the Tigers' record to 0-3-0 for the season, the first time in Blitz's tenure that the team has gone winless through its first three games. But for Blitz, the difficult schedule is by design. After a low RPI caused the Tigers to narrowly miss out on a national championship berth last season, Blitz wanted the early portion of his schedule to be much tougher.
"We don't care about record, we care about potential," Blitz said. "We are progressing, that's why we're doing this tough schedule. We could easily be 4-0 if we wanted to play weaker opponents but we purposely stacked our schedule to help us reach our goal."
The first win of the season will be an important one, as Blitz is one victory away from number 200 in his coaching career. Even so, senior forward Alysha Bonnick said the team doesn't feel pressured.
"I think it's going to come naturally," Bonnick, a team captain, said. "I think we're really starting to click and I think we're going to dominate in the next few games on offense."
A lot of the team's positivity comes from the level of competition they faced over the weekend. After being stretched to their limits against three nationally ranked teams, the Tigers believe that they have a lot of momentum heading into a softer part of their schedule. And in this case, Gwin believes losing helps the team grow stronger.
"I definitely think we're going to try and keep up the same level of intensity that we played against UNC and actually raise it when we play other teams," Gwin said. "We're going to get so much more out of these last three games than we would have gotten if we played weaker teams than us. We don't really see mistakes when winning covers it up. But losing, it's all out there on the table."