The Hornets were the shot of a lifetime and about two inches away from playing No. 20 Nebraska-Omaha to a tie on Thursday night.
But bad luck and bad bounces gave the Hornets a 2-0 loss, extending their losing streak to five games.
The Mavericks scored in the first minute on a Jerica Kuncl shot from outside the box that hit off the cross bar and fell into the goal.
“That’s a hell of a shot and I’m not taking credit away from her,” ESU coach Jim Schneiderhahn said. “She got the opportunity and she crushed it.”
MaryClaire Murnan scored the Mavs’ second goal nine minutes in and the Hornets held the Mavs scoreless the rest of the game.
Nebraska-Omaha’s defense has allowed only seven goals in nine games this season and showed its strength against ESU. The Hornets did not have a shot on goal and the majority of the game was played on UNO’s side of the field.
The Hornets nearly scored in the 23rd minute of the second half on their only legitimate scoring opportunity on the night. Alison Germany sent a cross into the box and Courtnew Cowan kicked the ball off the right post.
ESU goalie Jennifer Stillmock held the Mavs scoreless in the final 81 minutes. Stillmock came out of the game near the end of the first half after a collision with a UNO forward. She missed the final 5:37 of the first half and the first 10:15 of the second half, but came back in and finished with four saves. Tina Commons also had one save.
The ESU defense was much improved from last week when Missouri Southern won 5-1 and had 22 shots.
Schneiderhahn had the Southern game filmed and used the tape as a teaching tool during his team’s week off.
“What I’m pleased with is they learned from their mistakes,” he said. “Last match everybody had at least one and we had plenty of them. The idea is that we learn from those mistakes and come out the next time and improve on them.”
Schneiderhahn also felt like his team improved on its effort, which he said was lacking in the Southern loss.
“They’re a nationally ranked team and they’re that for a reason,” he said. “I think our effort was nationally ranked and now we have to make sure our play becomes that way.”
The Hornets have struggled on offense lately, scoring only one goal in their last three games. On Thursday, they played without two of their top offensive players, Lauren Cathey and leading goal-scorer Alicia Smith.
ESU had to shuffle around its lineup with Cathey and Smith out, and defender Raquel White played her first game at attacking midfielder.
“People probably thought we were going to lose a lot worse than what we did,” White said, “and we just came together as a team, which we really needed to do and we played well.”
The Hornets fell to 3-8 and 1-6 in the MIAA, while UNO improved to 7-2 and 5-2 in the league. ESU is at home again on Saturday against Northwest Missouri at the TRYSA Soccer Complex at 2 p.m.