The women’s soccer team sparred the North Florida Ospreys, ending in a 1-1 tie Oct. 10.
The Bears (8-6-2, ASUN 7-1-2) were unable to score a goal until the senior forward Anna Kerr scored in the 53rd minute with an assist from sophomore forward Caroline Billings.
The Bears attempted to keep the ball from the Ospreys (8-3-7, ASUN 5-1-3) but were unsuccessful.
North Florida senior forward Jersi Dadah kicked the ball past Central Arkansas senior goalkeeper Kasja Pruner, earning a goal in the 79th minute. Neither team scored after this, leading to a draw.
Central Arkansas coach Jeremy Bishop said he was “a little disappointed.”
“I feel like we didn’t start the game the way we can, so we were playing catch up the whole first half,” he said. “But I am proud of the way that we made adjustments at halftime and came out and played much better in the second half. We gave ourselves a chance. North Florida took it to us in the first half, and we responded well to that.”
Freshman defender Addylan Wright said she was “definitely exhausted” after the game.
“I’m actually really proud of our work,” she said. “I’m really proud of the backline. I thought we handled that pretty well. We weren’t expecting the pressure during the first half, and I think we handled it as well as we could have.”
Bishop said, “I thought we fought really well. I don’t think we weren’t physically ready to play. I think we were maybe mentally not quite ready to play. I think maybe we got a little proud of ourselves a little bit, and so that’s good that we had this and didn’t lose it. Now we can respond well.”
Bishop said the Bears used halftime to rework their game plan.
“They [Ospreys] were playing with three forwards that were really pressing against our back three, and we kept just trying to play like we want to play,” he said. “That’s a lot of short passes and keeping the ball. — we weren’t able to do that. We talked at halftime about just skipping the midfield and playing it into the forward so that we could bypass all the pressure and then give ourselves chances to get forward from there.”
The game against the Ospreys was Wright’s second game wearing a hard cast on her wrist.
“I broke it about two weeks ago,” she said. “It’s difficult. It’s an adjustment, for sure. It’s so sweaty, which is not ideal. It’s another layer of thought that I have to add up to make sure I’m tucking and rolling — not landing on my wrist.”
Wright said her goal is “to keep making the team better and hopefully get us to a conference win and to the postseason tournament.”
At the time of the game, the Bears were ranked first in the Atlantic Sun Conference, and the Ospreys were ranked sixth.
Bishop said, “A win gets you three points. A tie gets you one point — so it’s all about points at the end of the season.”
The Bears won a home game 3-2 against Jacksonville University (4-9-3, ASUN 3-5-2) on Oct. 13 and an away game 2-0 against Stetson (8-10, ASUN 3-7) on Oct. 17.
However, Florida Gulf Coast (9-5-2, ASUN 8-1-1) overthrew the Bears 2-1, taking over the ASUN ranking in an away game Oct. 20.
The Bears, currently ranked second in the conference, will play North Alabama (3-13, ASUN 1-9) in Florence, Alabama, on Oct. 26.