Written by: Sartaj Aujla

The Akron women’s soccer team opened up home field MAC play this past weekend, looking to pick up after a bad start to conference play, but fell to both Northern Illinois, 1-0, and Toledo, 2-1.

The Zips are now 4-7-0 and are on an unfortunate five-game losing streak.

The team is also 0-4 against fellow MAC teams.  “We obviously are very disappointed about the results,” interim head coach Vernon Croft said. “We wanted to go out and win every game. To start out like this in the MAC is discouraging.”

Both of the games were played at FirstEnergy Stadium over the weekend.

The Zips were determined to try and get out of their losing streak with some consistent play.

That consistency that they were looking for was not going to come easy.

Northern Illinois challenged the Zips throughout the game.

The Zips often threatened to score, but the Huskies dominated the majority of the match and in the 13th minute posted the only point.

The Zips were able to close out the Huskies’ offense for the rest of the game, but even though the Zips held the advantage in shots, Akron could not muster up any scoring offense. The game ended 1-0, Northern Illinois.

The Zips tried to learn from their mistakes before Sunday’s game against Toledo.

In honor of Kick for the Cure Day, the team wore pink uniforms instead of their standard white uniforms.

Akron held the advantage in shots in the first half, but Toledo was able to find the scoreboard before the end of the first half as the Rocket’s Megan Blake brought the score to 1-0, Toledo.

Akron continued to hold the advantage in shots to start off the second half, and they were rewarded for their efforts after a shot by Ashley Hughes in the 17th minute of the second half brought the score to 1-1.

Toledo, however, was ready for a close match. In the final minutes of the second half, the Rockets were able to drive a kick in by Kristen Mantel to bring the final score to 2-1, handing the Zips their seventh loss of
the season.

Vernon Croft knows what his team needs to do in order to improve for the rest of the season.

“We need to continue competing; we are going to focus on the fundamentals,” Croft said. “The coaches and players have been doing the right things, it’s just that we need to tweak some things, and then we should be good for the rest of the season.”

Starting off MAC play 0-4 can be very disheartening, but Croft is not worried.

He believes that his team has been performing at such a level that they could have easily been 3-1 instead of 0-4.

“We are doing the right things, but we did not get the results we think we deserve,” Croft said. “We have performed well against tough teams this weekend, and there are enough positives to work on. I’m not worried
one bit.”