The Lady Norse women's soccer team hosted the Crowder College Roughriders in a season-opening match Thursday night. NEO was down from 15 players due to injuries ranging from knees to concussions. Crowder began to be visibly frustrated as NEO created numerous scoring opportunities all while maintaining a stout backline. Neither team could find the back of the net as NEO controlled all facets of the game.
            NEO Head Women's Soccer Coach Lisa Bell said, "I think the team played well as a whole based on statistics and even watching the game. I think you can see that Riley Waits and Lauren Foster are going to be some offensive forces for us. Carson Sergeant just started training with us on Monday and even though she was in the defense, she worked her way into the offense. Getting two shots with two shots on goal I think she's a girl to watch for us. In addition to her stepping into the offense, you saw Fatimatu Abdul Hakeem and Sage Mitchell stepping into the offense from the defense. I think all of those aspects put together are going to create a stronger offense and defense for us. Again from watching the game, you see that we had minimal subs but we just kind of kept a rotation about every 10 minutes or so putting a girl back on the field just to get a little break where we needed it or to make a little change up here and there. And I think the key to shutting Crowder out was definitely the effort in the hard work that these girls have put in since they arrived on campus for the preseason. They're hard workers. They understand that they're going to have to work hard all over the field and that they're going to have to be able to be versatile. They're going to have to be versatile and be able to play in multiple positions which you saw with Letizia Lorents she was in at defense, she was in at striker, she was in at winger. Arianna Rodriguez is playing in a few different places. As the season progresses, I think we'll figure out the versatility that we have and how we can use it to our advantage to be successful just as we were with Crowder.
            If there was ever a question of how to replace one of the best goalkeepers in NJCAA history, the game against Crowder answered it. Freshman goalkeeper Izzy Coulson impressed in limited work.
            "Another player to mention was our goalkeeper Izzy Colson. She only had a couple of saves in the game, but I think our defense in front of her helped eliminate the number of times she had to make saves. But when she had the ball, she was very smart with it. She was smart with her restart with her ball placement and clearly gives a lot of confidence to our defense. Our defense does have the ability to push forward into the offense," said Bell.
            The Lady Norse host North Arkansas College on Tuesday, August 27^th at 5 pm. Admission is always free to the public. Row! Norse! Row!