After last Saturday’s women’s soccer matchup between the Calvin Knights and the Hope Flying Dutchmen, the scoreboard on Zuidema Field read 3-0, with Hope coming out victorious.

Although Calvin failed to defeat its rival, its defense displayed an impressive performance by managing to hold the Dutchmen to only one goal in the game’s first half.

Hope did not score its second goal until the 49th minute of the game. This goal happened on a cross kick inside of the box to the far side of the post.

Later, in the matchup’s 56th minute, Hope strengthened its lead by scoring another goal off a breakaway, marking the game’s final score of 3-0.

“I think we fought hard through the entire game, but it was hard for us to get possession. We had trouble getting numbers into our attack,” explains team captain Kelsey Hiegel.

After being asked what adjustments the team needs to make before its next game, team captain Jaimie Verbal responded: “We need to start coming out with urgency and efficiency. We need to start setting the pace of the game rather than having our opponents set it for us.  A full 90-minute game of intensity is what we need, and right now we are not all there the entire time.”

Beginning the season with the slow start of a 1-5 record, the Knights have showed improvement by winning more games throughout the season. The Calvin women’s soccer team’s record currently stands at 5-6 in the overall season and 4-4 in the MIAA conference.

“We have a lot of newcomers on our team, and this season we have been working on integrating the new players into how we play the game. We have come a long way since the beginning of the season, but I think we still need to figure out how to play as a team and work on combining with each other,” explains Hiegal.

The team has set a goal to finish in the top four of the MIAA conference; this is so they can have an opportunity to compete in the national tournament.

The Knights are scheduled to play another conference game this Saturday at noon against Trine.