The Gustie Women’s Soccer team lost a close game this past weekend by a score of 2-1.

On Sunday, the Gusties traveled to Northfield to take on St Olaf.

The Oles are off to a good start this season, as their record improved to 7-3-1 overall and 4-1 in the conference.

This marks the Gusties’ third loss in a row, after winning two straight against Northwestern – St. Paul and Saint Mary’s.

With the loss, the Gusties fall to 2-8 overall and 1-4 in the conference.

However, the Gusties have kept the games close as they have only lost the last three games by one goal in each, one of which went into overtime.

There were plenty of scoring opportunities in the game, as each team had more than 15 shots total and seven shots on goal.

Therefore, both goalkeepers had busy days as they both had to make at least six saves.

Senior Ashley Becker had eight saves on the day for Gustavus.

There was no scoring in the first half, as the first goal came about five minutes after halftime from Junior Katie Ashpole, assisted by Junior Taylor Hemme.

This was Ashpole’s fourth goal of the season, padding her lead atop the team for goals this season.

Hemme’s assist was her third of the year, which also leads the team.

About ten minutes later, the Oles found the back of the net, tying the score at 1-1.

It looked as if the game was going to overtime, when St. Olaf scored in the 88th minute to take the lead.

The Gusties were unable to score in the remaining time, and the game ended in a 2-1 victory for the Oles.

Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie says that her team is still trying to find its identity, and that they need to work on being more consistent in the future.

“We have high expectations for ourselves and are still trying to decide who we want to be as a team this year,” Burnett-Kurie said. “We have some outstanding moments where we are able to show our true potential, other times we struggle. It’s about finding consistency moving forward.”

Despite the loss, Burnett-Kurie had a couple positive takeaways from the game on Sunday.

“We scored a great goal today, had other dangerous opportunities and defensively we have some strong moments. A few times we moved the ball better than we have all year. We are going to take those moments and move forward. When we play for each other and with the Gustie tempo, it’s fun to play and watch,” Burnett-Kurie said.

After a couple of tough losses, the Gusties have learned from the games and are looking to stay aggressive offensively.

“I think we have learned that we can’t become complacent, especially going up early. Once we score, we need to be willing to keep going at them, not sit back and defend the rest of the game. We need to take pride in our hard work, and use that to motivate us to be consistent throughout the whole game,” Ashpole said.

The Gusties’ season has been a series of ups and downs, as they have experienced both winning streaks and losing streaks. One thing they are looking to improve upon in the next couple games is consistency.

“I think we need to find our consistency and be able to ride the highs and lows of the game. We need to let these past few games motivate us and then use that momentum to finish the season with hard work ethic and a drive to win,” Ashpole said.

The Gusties travel to Wisconsin to take on a tough UW-La Crosse team on Wednesday at 6 p.m.