On Thursday, Nov. 2, the Wayne State College Wildcats women’s soccer team fell to the Winona State Warriors 3-0, concluding the season for both teams.  

“A loss is always hard. I thought the girls had handled it well,” Head Coach Emily Hester said. “It is never easy when your season comes to an end. We will look at all the positives from this year and continue to build. I truly believe the season we had this fall will help drive them to achieve an even higher standard next fall.” 

WSC finishes the season in 10th place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with an overall record of 7-8-3 and 5-6-3 in the league, while Winona State ends in 12th place with a record of 3-7-7 and 2-6-6 in league games.  

“The NSIC is a very tough conference,” Hester said. “Every game presents a new challenge, and each team has to come in and be ready. I thought Winona played a very good 90-minute match. I thought we had some chances in the second half and I’m proud of our team and what these ladies accomplished this year.” 

Compared to last year’s season 2022 with a record of 3-11-4 and 3-9-3 in NSIC, WSC made an improvement in 2023. “I think this year the girls came in hungry and wanted to succeed,” Hester said. “Throughout the course of this fall they really dug in, and it showed how well we played. I am proud of how well they responded after not getting the results they wanted last year.” 

The Warriors had 14 shots while the Wildcats managed only four, and the shots on goal were 9-2 in favor of the Warriors. Additionally, the Warriors held a 5-2 edge in corner kicks. The Wildcats only two shots on goal came from junior Maia Vacks at the 13:36 mark and the second by sophomore Paige Pemberton at 60-minute mark. Senior goalkeeper Hayden Wallace made six saves. 

“There are always things that we can learn and grow from to be better in each game. I thought in the second half we controlled the tempo a bit more,” Hester said. “We will take the positives from this game and keep improving as a group going into the next game or next season.”