ENMU women blanked by Skyhawks

Staff report

The Eastern New Mexico University women’s soccer team suffered its first loss of the season on Monday, falling 2-0 to Fort Lewis College during Eastern’s home opener.

While the Greyhounds have shown signs of improvement over last year, they have recently been slowed by injuries that have caused coach Omar Morales to rethink the team’s strategy.

“I think its affecting us in the sense that we kind of had an idea of what girls were going to start and the way we were planning on playing with them,” Morales said. “With the personnel we have now, we had to change our game plan up. It’s a little difficult when you have the depth, but your strategy and personnel gets changed up.”

While playing the Skyhawks (1-1) to a scoreless first half, the second stanza saw the Greyhounds (0-1-1) give up two scores in a span of just over six minutes midway through the period. Both Fort Lewis goals came from Shayla Malecki.

“For about 60 minutes, we competed and played,” Morales said. “We had a couple of great scoring opportunities, but we just couldn’t put them away.

“We are some what of a young team, so we just have to play consistent and work hard. We just have to figure out a way to do it for 90 minutes.”

ENMU forward Anniah Galdean had several opportunities, recording three shots on goal and leading the team on offense. The Greyhounds finished with seven shots to the Skyhawks’ six.

ENMU goalkeeper Marissa Torres had two saves in the match.

The Hounds’ next outing is on Friday when they host Adams State in a 6 p.m. start.