By Mia Ines
 
The Lancer women's soccer team fell 1-0 to the first place Western Mustangs on Sunday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.
 
Prior to the game the Lancers honoured their graduating seniors Lauren Gellner, Jordan Samping, Emma Miner, Grace Melick, Megan Bornais, Haley Smith, and Nicole Hogeterp.
 
The loss moves the Lancers to 4-3-3 on the season and in sixth place in the OUA west division, while the Mustangs improve to 8-2-1 and remain in first place.
 
STATS
Lauren Gellner made 13 saves in net for the Lancers, while the squad had 3 shots on net.
 
Western's midfielder Mackenzie Bilotta helped the team secure the victory with the team's lone goal, while Keeper Samantha St. Croix made three total saves to earn the shut out.
 
GAME FLOW
The first half of the game saw the Mustangs quickly set the tone against the Lancers. With their quick footwork, Windsor had difficulties finding possession of the ball and often play went into the Lancer zone. With many close chances, Lauren Gellner did her best to prevent any shots making a huge save when a shot by Maya Lankin became loose and she was able to keep it out of the box. The Lancers best chance came after 35 minutes with a shot by Emma Beaulieu when it went wide right. Shortly after, Western responded back with a goal of their own by Mackenzie Bilotta and the blue and gold awaited their time to find a scoring opportunity in the second half. The Lancers were left in a 1-0 deficit at halftime.
 
Into the second half, the blue and gold continued with the defensive theme making larger efforts to try to get to the ball first but still unable to push the ball up the pitch into Western territory. A battle of action got things heated on the field when Emma Miner made a run for the counter and several Lancers made it into the box but Brooke MacLeod's shot soared high for a good effort. At 77:48, Windsor had another chance to breakthrough off of a deflection by Aislynn Essibrah, fresh off the bench yet nothing came of it. Both squads went on to make quick touches up and down the pitch, but no other openings were created. In the end, time had run out for the Lancers, and they fell short to the Mustangs who took the match, 1-0.
 
UP NEXT
Windsor will start to round out its regular season schedule this upcoming weekday on the road. The Lancers head to Waterloo on Wednesday, October 19th and to Guelph Friday, October 21st respectively. Both games are set to kick-off at 6:00 p.m.