The UCA women’s soccer team belted one in the late stretch of a tie game to lift the Bears over Harding University 3-2. 

The home win was a back-and-forth contest, with Harding scoring early before UCA scored twice to take a late lead April 9. 

The Bears controlled offensive possession and were able to string together several passing sequences and scoring opportunities. 

“We created a lot of opportunities tonight,” coach Jeremy Bishop said. “[We] probably could’ve had six or seven goals. So you’d like to finish more of those. But, when you’re creating them, that’s a good thing.” 

Bishop said spring games were about development, which led to UCA using a lot of players throughout the game. 

“I felt like the level of soccer was good throughout,” Bishop said. “[But] I didn’t feel like our focus and intensity was where it needed to be, where it can be and where it’s already been this spring.” 

The Bison struck first off of a rebound in the first 15 minutes, but the Bears clawed back into it with strong offensive zone pressure and shots on goal.

After an initial save, freshman forward Kayla Hurley buried the rebound to tie the game.

The teams spent the rest of the first half trading possessions, with several corners leading to high-danger chances. 

But, ultimately, neither team was able to break the deadlock. 

The second half was a possession battle, with both sides creating chances — without avail. 

As the match got into the 80-minute mark, UCA pressed on Harding’s defense and through net-front pressure, broke through with a tie-breaking goal.

On top late in the match, UCA got complacent in its defensive structure and gave up a tying goal with a little over five minutes remaining. 

In a swift response, UCA moved the ball down the field and scored off of a rebound with little time remaining to essentially seal the victory. 

“That was the highlight of the night,” Bishop said. “It had been to go to like ‘Oh shoot, I guess this game is going to be a tie’ but they went back to work and created another opportunity.” 

Harding was unable to generate any offensive momentum after the goal and through creating turnovers, the Bears were able to run out the clock to seal the victory. 

Defensively, UCA had a relatively easy night, with Harding struggling to generate long-term pressure. 

“Honestly, we didn’t have to do a whole lot of defending tonight. They were able to, for the most part, handle it,” Bishop said. “They had one forward up so our three backs were able to handle that pretty easily.”

Bishop said he would like to see more improvements in the backfield’s passing during midfield offensive transitions to generate forward breakouts. 

“It wasn’t our best, I don’t think,” Bishop said. “It’s just about being more ready to go from game time.”

UCA improved to 2-1 in spring soccer with the win over Harding, having lost the spring opener to the Arkansas Razorbacks and won against the Toronto Blizzard.