Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University forward Haley Mason converges on a loose ball along with a Wayne State defender during the first half of a womens soccer game in Marshall on Friday. The Wildcats defeated the Mustangs 4-1.

MARSHALL — Offensive opportunities were hard for the Southwest Minnesota State University soccer team on Friday afternoon as the Mustangs lost 4-1 to Wayne State. The loss marked the first time since 2017 that the Mustangs lost each of their first five matches of the season. SMSU started the 2017 season 0-14 and finished with a 1-16 record.

“I give credit to Wayne State, they brought energy. They won a lot of 50-50 balls and it’s definitely hard when, in a game of this caliber, you need everybody to be playing 100%,” SMSU head coach Clay Glasgow said. “That’s something we really have to do a better job of. It looked like they were just faster to the ball than us today, but I think positively, it’s our first conference game. We’ve got about 14 more to go, so the next game is important now.”

The Mustangs were able to keep Wayne State off the board until the 38th minute when Paige Pemberton netted the go-ahead goal to head into halftime with a lead. That momentum kept rolling after the break as Alaina Sorensen netted another just two minutes into the second half off the feed from Maia Vacks.

Haley Mason fired off the first shot of the game for SMSU, an off-target shot in the third minute. From there, Wayne State fired off 12 unanswered shots up through the 74th minute.

SMSU won the possession battle on the game, holding 51% of the time of possession. Still, they struggled to get in position to score. A big part of that was their struggles passing the ball effectively, with Wayne State intercepting many of the Mustangs’ passes or forcing bad looks.

“It could be a couple of factors. Nervousness, you know, we played with three freshmen, it’s the first conference game, so a little bit of that,” Glasgow said. “Also, the intensity they [Wayne State] brought, we didn’t adjust well to that. I think that added to it, but I think at the end of the day, you’ve got to be able to connect passes and play off each other.”

The SMSU drought ended when the Wildcats were called for a handball. Selena Prolic then stepped up to the spot and sent the penalty kick into the right side of the net for SMSU’s first home goal of the season and second goal overall, cutting Wayne State’s lead from three goals down to two.

Riann Daas stole the ball from SMSU at midfield and got on a fast break by herself. With SMSU defenders converging in on her from the sideline, she fired off a shot about 35 yards out from the goal and the screamer soared over Hicks’ outstretched hands, making the score 3-0 in the 69th minute.

Morgan Rhodes got the ball down the sidelines in the 81st minute but was fouled just outside the penalty box. While Wayne State was only awarded a free kick instead of a penalty kick, it didn’t matter for the Wildcats. Alyssa Ferin stepped up to take the kick by the right hash marks and sent it curling into the top shelf for a 4-1 lead.

SMSU, now 0-5 on the season, will try to end its early-season skid on Friday, Sept. 27 when they host UMary at 3 p.m. The Marauders are 3-1 on the season. Head-to-head, SMSU is 4-17 all-time against UMary dating back to 1997. The Marauders have won each of the teams’ last six meetings, putting together an aggregate score of 10-0.

“At the end of the day, the next game is important. We can’t do anything about our past record, so we’re back to training tomorrow to look at tape,” Glasgow said after the game. “We can’t worry about the games that we lost, the most important game is the next one so that has got to be our focus now.”