Sacramento State women’s soccer (5-5-0)  lost their first Big Sky Conference game tonight against the Southern Utah Thunderbirds (4-3-1).

Despite slow performance in the first half, Sac State battled and fought their way in the second half. However, a late goal in the 85th minute by junior midfielder Nancy Brich is what ultimately sealed the deal for the Thunderbirds to give them their first win of conference play.   

Sac State freshman forward Emily Hooper scored her first goal of the 2014 season via assist by sophomore forward Adaurie Dayak.   

“We played really poorly in the first half, head coach Randy Dedini said. “That’s what happens when you don’t put together 90 minutes. We came out in the second half and played much better, we played inspired soccer [in the second half].”

After the conclusion of the first half, there was a weather delay that lasted over an hour due to lightning and Dedini said he refused to believe that it had any sort of negative impact on the team.

“No, not really, the weather wasn’t really all that bad, it wasn’t like crazy weather,” Dedini said. “We played better in the second half so I don’t think it affected us negatively, it gave us more time to think about how to come back and win.”   

Even though Hooper was excited that she scored her first goal of the season, she said she was not thrilled with how the final five minutes of the game concluded.

“I was really happy and excited to score, Adaurie played me a really good ball and I was just really excited, but overall I’m pretty bummed about the game,” Hooper said. “We didn’t come out as strong as we could have in the first half, and we’re going to need to win on the road this Sunday but we can fight for it like usual.”

Defensively for Sac State, senior goalkeeper Kimberly Mata had four saves as she was faced with a total of 13 shots against the Thunderbirds offense, led by Aurora Moberly who scored the 25th minute and Nancy Brich whose goal in the 85th minute was the game-ending goal for the Thunderbirds.

Dayak thought the team battled back, fought hard, and played better soccer in the second half of play compared to the first half.

“We all pulled together, we all stood on the sidelines cheering for each other nonstop and it brought us all that confidence, and we played a lot better because we all were pretty pumped up,” Dayak said.

Dayak believes that this team needs to put this game behind them, move forward, and prepare to face Northern Arizona on Sunday.

“It was a really tough loss but I feel like we’re going to pull it together, get the next one, and so on,” Dayak said.  

The Hornets will continue their conference play noon on Sunday where they will face Northern Arizona on the road