MOON TOWNSHIP– The Robert Morris women’s soccer team returned to the North Athletic Complex dropping 1-0 to the Saint Francis Red Flash.

The Colonials played two games on the road before returning home. The team came back from a two-goal deficit in the second half to tie 2-2 to Southern Indiana last Thursday and were shutout 4-0 to Indiana State on Sunday.

Saint Francis has been a regular on RMU’s schedule despite conference and coaching changes since 2020 and have beaten the Red Flash the past two years. That streak was snapped on Thursday.

“We’re after a performance, not necessarily a result,” first-year head coach Michelle Rick said postgame. “We need to look ourselves in the face and be honest and say, ‘We didn’t come out and execute on the game plan that we wanted to.’ And with talking with the girls afterwards, they know that loud and clear.”

Both teams each had one shot on goal in the first half, however for the Red Flash, theirs would be the one to enter the net. Lauren Pyne headed the ball in off a corner in the 22nd minute.

Coach Rick said she wanted to clear up the defense on set pieces.

“That’s what we’re talking with executing on the things that we know we need to execute on. That’s just being disciplined defensively and we’ve addressed that with the team and it’s something we’re actively working on.”

Coming out of the break it seemed the Colonials were a different team, having 11 shots, five of which were on goal. Senior goalkeeper Emma Sawich stopped all five of those shots, and totalled six saves on the afternoon.

Coach Rick said coming out of the break the team need to fix the “controllable side of the game, like communication and capitalizing on their chances string passes together and get entries into the final third more consistently.”

“It needs to be like that from the first whistle to the last,” Rick said.

With 12 minutes to go, the match was paused due to lightning in the area. The game was delayed for about an hour.

“In the last 12 minutes the response was great,” Rick said. “We went through a lot of tactical notes, but the larger point overall was that we need to bring the mentality that we want to have from the very beginning of the game. That is discipline, willingness to fight for 50-50 battles and to adjust our shape between phases of the game so that we can provide better supporting angles and give us an opportunity to move through the thirds of the field with possession.”

There were many opportunities for the Colonials, including Taylor Day’s shot outside the box hitting the crossbar and a missile from Ava Trethewey that was saved by Sawich.

The Colonials’ next match will be Sunday Sep. 1 against West Virginia in Morgantown at 5 p.m.