Attacking the Northern Arizona goal throughout their Big Sky conference home opener, Sacramento State women’s soccer were in search of an equalizer after conceding a penalty early in the second half.
Taking a throw-in, fifth year defender Isabella Vinsonhaler found sophomore midfielder Jaety Mandaquit marked by two NAU players. The ball was deflected by the Lumberjacks and landed in the path of junior midfielder Ellie Farber.
Farber sent a first-touch cross into the vicinity of junior forward Lexi Schroeder. As the cross was made, NAU freshman goalkeeper Reece Reichwald came out of her box to try and beat Schroeder to the ball.
Schroeder was able to connect with the ball before Reichwald got to it. Contact with her left foot in the middle of the air saw the ball roll into the back of the net for a Hornets equalizer in the 81st minute.
Trailing with less than 10 minutes to play, Sacramento State junior forward Lexi Schroeder connects with the cross from junior midfielder Ellie Farber to get the Hornets an equalizer late on. pic.twitter.com/iaUdxPaFPo
— Elisha K Chandra (@ElishaChandra_) September 29, 2025
“We have been working on that for a while now in practice. We had the long throw,” Schroeder said. “We preach: even if we don’t get it the first try, we have the second try. So we got the second chance, and Ellie served it in, and I just went to the ball.”
After Schroeder scored, the Hornets were looking to repeat the late thrills against Northern Colorado with another late winner against NAU.
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With four minutes to play, redshirt junior defender Bri Prado crossed in a ball that got headed away by the Lumberjacks. The ball then fell to NAU sophomore defender Valentina Navetta. Navetta attempted to clear the ball, but in the way of the clearance was NAU sophomore defender Katy Rueter.
The clearance from Navetta got a piece of Reuter’s hand inside the box, but the referee waved it off and the game went on.
Attempting to clear the ball, NAU sophomore defender Valentina Navetta’s clearance gets a piece of NAU sophomore defender Katy Rueter’s hand. The referee then told the players to play on. pic.twitter.com/AfcVnW5nhI
— Elisha K Chandra (@ElishaChandra_) September 29, 2025
“Im pretty sure it was a hand ball. I thought it should have been a penalty,” Sac State head coach Randy Dedini said. “There was actually another one before that where Tea got crunched in the box. We deserved at least one of those two.”
After the handball incident, time eventually ran out for either team to find a late winner.
The 1-1 result gave the Hornets their first draw of the season and maintained their undefeated record in the Big Sky Conference, bringing their overall record to 5-6-1 and their conference record to 1-0-1. The game featured a total of 30 shots, with the Hornets landing 16 to the Lumberjacks’ 14.
“I thought we played well. We moved the ball well. We created some nice chances,” Dedini said. “It was unfortunate about the penalty kick, but overall I thought the team did well to get a goal back to at least get a point out of this game and not give up all three.”
The penalty the Hornets conceded to the Lumberjacks came in the 53rd minute.
Chasing the ball in the Hornet box, freshman midfielder Elyse McGinnis slid in on Lumberjack junior forward Micala Boex, attempting to get the ball but making contact with Boex instead.
After NAU converted the penalty, the Hornets continued their attacking approach and kept pressuring the Lumberjack goal.
“These past years that I’ve been here, we get scored on and our heads immediately go down. We have been focusing on keeping our energy high, and we always do well when we keep our energy high,” Farber said. “The talk in the huddle afterwards was that we keep our energy high. ‘We have 30 minutes left; we can score. We still got it.’”
Farber is entering her third season with the Hornets as an integral part of the midfield. Farber was a part of last season’s Big Sky triumph for Sac State and was included in the 2024 Big Sky Conference All-Tournament Team.
“I think we can win it again. That’s what we are going for,” Farber said. “We might have a few bumps on the road, but we want to get the ring again.”
The Hornets will continue conference play at Hornet field on Thursday in a Big Sky championship rematch against Idaho at 3 p.m.
“We are going to have to get ready for a track meet type of a game,” Dedini said. “They like to run at you. They like to play fairly direct. It’s going to be a challenge for us but a challenge that we can overcome.”
