By Lindsay Carlton

Kimberly HillIer had three goals and one assist and rookie Lauren Whitcomb scored a game-high two points, but the struggling Pride still managed to fall on the road to the Denver Pioneers this past Saturday afternoon.

In 2005, the Pride shut down the Pioneers at home with a 17-9 victory. But that was the Pride’s 11th game of the year. This year’s Pride team only had two other games to get their teams cohesiveness together. So it was evident in Saturday’s 15-9 loss that the Pride haven’t gotten to that point quite yet. Plenty of factors need to be considered for why the Pride hasn’t walked away with a win yet this year.

“I think right now we are a little taken back by the losses as a team,” head coach Shelley Klaes-Bawcombe said. “In every situation we have been short on the field both on the offensive end and on the defensive end…we have not been able to produce the way we expected.”

One concern should be the team’s lack of ground balls. Denver totaled 27 in the game while the Pride had only 18. The Pride may need to work on controlling their plays and possessing more loose balls this season. If they continue to struggle in this area they’ll miss too many important shooting opportunities, which will ultimately lead the team to more losses. “We have just not chosen the right moments to take the shot…we’re trying to make the big play instead of doing the easy fundamental defensive concepts that help to bring confidence to your team,” Klaes-Bawcombe stated.

The Pride strived to take a win away in their second game of the season against Rutgers University on March 1, but unfortunately for the Pride, it wasn’t enough to contend with the Scarlet Knights, who beat the Pride, 9-7. The loss was the Pride’s first 0-2 start since 2002.

The Pride, 0-3 on the road against Denver, struck early in the game as freshmen midfielder Lauren Whitcomb scored her first unassisted goal of the season. Denver responded with two consecutive goals tallied by midfielder Karen Morton and attack Stephanie Greenless. But Pride’s freshmen were on a roll as freshmen midfielder Sandy Wasserbach scored at 20:59 with an assist by junior attack Kimberly Hillier. Denver didn’t seem to be impressed by the Pride’s rookies as they went on a 6-1 scoring run in the following 12 minutes to pull a 8-3 lead with less than 10 minutes in the half. Hillier stepped up for the Pride and ended the first half with a goal and started the next half with one as well. But the Pioneers answered back with two back-to-back unassisted goals, one by midfielder Kristie Leggio and the other by top-scoring player Tanya Fuchs. Fuchs made five goals and two ground balls for Denver.

With 12:36 left in regulation, Denver took a 12-7 advantage. Heading into the last minutes of the game Attack Catherine Guerriere scored one more for the Pride on a free position shot. But Fuchs wouldn’t let the game end on a free shot, she dashed down field and scored the last goal of the contest at :58.

The Pride, who shot 9-29 in the game couldn’t get close enough to take the lead at any point of the contest. The Pioneers improve to 3-2 while the Pride’s record drops 0-3. The Pride’s next game is against Cornell University away on Sunday at 1 p.m.

“A loss can do two things, it can tear you apart or make you stronger,” Klaes-Bawcombe said. “Everything happens for a reason and were just trying to stick together and continue to fight to go after what were after, which is the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) championship and were not going to back down.”