After taking a 1–3 loss at the hands of Washington State University, Weber State’s women’s soccer team squared off against the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Aug. 31, hosting the match at Weber State soccer field. The Wildcats continued with their struggles as the UNLV Rebels secured a 2–0 victory, leaving Weber State without a win in their first five games of the season.
The Rebels wasted no time in asserting dominance, with Trinity Buchanan netting an early goal just two minutes into the game. Haley Halbersma provided a crucial assist, delivering a precise through ball that put Buchanan one-on-one with the opposing goalkeeper, resulting in a 1–0 lead for UNLV.
Almost 30 minutes into the first half, Buchanan struck again, notching her second goal of the match. UNLV seized the opportunity after a failed Weber State corner kick, launching a fast break that once again placed Buchanan in a one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper.
“We keep giving up early goals in these games, which makes it very difficult to get that rhythm going,” Weber State head coach Craig Sanders said.
Heading into halftime, UNLV had a two-goal advantage over the Wildcats.
As the first half concluded, the Rebels held a comfortable two-goal advantage over the Wildcats. The second half, however, remained devoid of any scoring, with UNLV’s goalkeeper, Lucia Guemes, preserving her clean sheet for the day. Weber State’s goalkeeper, Tayiah Lambert, managed to make four saves during the game.
“We didn’t do enough to get back into the game, we tried to contain a little bit, but we weren’t winning our one vs one battles, we should’ve done more up front and put more pressure on them and as a result the two goal score line stayed the same during the second half,” Sanders said.
Despite a total of five attempts on goal, Weber State was unable to test the UNLV goalkeeper effectively. In contrast, UNLV registered 10 shots, with six of those shots on target. The match featured a total of 21 fouls, with 16 of them being committed by the rebels.
Weber State’s upcoming match will have them traveling to Illinois, where they face off against Northwestern University at 6 p.m. MST.
