Home, bitter home

The struggles at home continued for the Utah Valley women’s soccer team as the University of Utah blew them out on Wednesday afternoon 6-0.

With Utah’s six goals, the Wolverines have been outscored 10-1 in four home games, including an exhibition loss to Weber State.

Ute forward Lauren Hair led her team with two goals while four other players also found the net for the defending Mountain West regular-season champions.

"Utah is a quality program," Coach Brent Anderson said. "They had some very good plays that produced goals. Hopefully we can clean some things up and rebound against Dixie."

In the first half, Hair took her defender baseline and slipped the ball past the out stretched hands of goalkeeper Mallory Schott.
Her second goal came early in the second half when she took the ball nearly the length of the field before firing it past Hailey Brown, who started the second half in goal for the Wolverines.
Down 3-0, Utah Valley tried to get more push on the offensive side of the field by bringing Schott in to play forward in the second half, and sending more players forward.

"We were connecting passes and getting opportunities," Anderson said. "When we do that we are successful."

A header off the crossbar by forward Shantae Adams and a couple of near misses by Utah Valley freshman Taryn Smith and Lauren Bluth were the closest the Wolverines could get to the net all afternoon.

The offensive attack of the Wolverines late in the second half left the defense exposed, and it showed. Utah midfielder Paola Marsenaro pounded a shot into the net off a rebound as Utah scored three late goals in the lopsided win.

Utah Valley was out-shot by their opponents from Salt Lake 28-12. The Wolverines also failed to have any corner kicks, while Utah hoisted up nine from the corner.

The loss drops the Wolverines to a record of 2-7-1 while Utah improves to 7-2-2. Utah Valley also remains winless at home this season.

The road doesn’t get any easier for the Wolverines. Next are games over the weekend at Dixie State and UNLV, and the team will hit the road for games against North Dakota State and South Dakota State before returning for its final two home games prior to playing host to the United Soccer Conference Tournament when they welcome NJIT and Delaware State to Utah Valley.