On Oct. 19, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers hosted the UW-Whitewater for a women’s soccer clash.

The Pioneers were looking for their third win in a row after snapping a seven-game losing streak last week against Buena Vista. The Pioneers would fall to the Warhawks, 2-0, breaking their win streak.

Alyssa Sickler started and finished the game as goalie for the Pioneers. She looked very confident in the first half of play despite allowing two goals. The Pioneers struggled to find an offensive rhythm early in the game, forcing their defense to step up.

It didn’t take long for Whitewater to score the first goal of the game on their fourth corner kick in just a matter of two minutes. After the first goal, the game started to become more aggressive as the Pioneers were getting pushed and shoved. A pioneer player was hit from behind and was called for a penalty. Coach Allison Sanyi was quick to express her opinion about that call.

The Pioneers would later be called for a handball in the box, allowing the Warhawks to take a penalty kick that was saved by Sickler. After the penalty kick, the Pioneers offense took a couple of nice shots that just didn’t fall.

Whitewater scored on another corner kick late in the first half that put them up 2-0. The Pioneers fought back with a couple of long shots but couldn’t find the goal, ending the half down 2-0.

The second half was much of the same for the Pioneers. They were unable to capitalize on a couple of good shots. Sickler allowed a ball to slide through her hands after coming out to grab it. Luckily a Pioneer defender was there to clear the ball out of bounds to save what could have been an easy goal for the Warhawks.

The Pioneers had a great opportunity to score later in the half, but Whitewater’s goalie grabbed ahold of Alex Carson’s leg, not allowing her to move or take a shot on the open goal. The referee did not signal for a penalty or call advantage. Advantage allows the attack to continue if the referee decides that they would be better off continuing to play instead of stopping and awarding a penalty kick. The ball would eventually roll over to a Pioneer who missed the open net shot. The Pioneers would fight until the end, but eventually come up short and lose 2-0.