EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The IUPUI women's soccer team let a first half lead slip away as the Jaguars dropped a 2-1 count at Evansville on a sunny Saturday afternoon (Sept. 13). Senior Lauren Kulaga netted her first career goal to give the Jaguars an early advantage, but the Purple Aces answered with a pair of Bronwyn Boswell goals in the second half to take the 2-1 win. 

"We gave up the midfield too much and couldn't really build out of that space," IUPUI Head Coach Chris Johnson said. "We couldn't really connect passes through the midfield and really just struggled in there. 

"I thought Maddie Riedford played well and I thought Cat Schmidt played really well in goal. She sold out on both goals, but really didn't have an opportunity to make a play on either."

IUPUI's (2-4-1) only shot on goal in the first half resulted in the game's only offense in the opening 45 minutes. Sophomore Krissy Kirkhoff drove a corner kick into traffic and Kulaga redirected a header into the upper-right corner of the net in the 28th minute. 

IUPUI missed a golden opportunity on a breakaway chance late in the first half, but was unable to get a shot attempt after an errant pass ended the threat. 

Boswell evened the score in the 48th minute, beating Schmidt after Allie Arguello slotted a centering pass to the UE attacker. The game-winner came in the 55th minute when Boswell's direct kick eluded Schmidt for her third score of the season. 

Playing with a sense of urgency in the closing minutes, IUPUI just missed tying the score on two different occasions in the final three minutes. Junior Tori Minnich had a shot cleared by UE goalie Simone Busby in the 88th minute, leading to a corner kick. On the ensuing corner kick, Minnich had an attempt cleared off the back line by an Evansville defender, leading to a second corner kick. The second corner was cleared out by Evansville without incident. 

"We're definitely creating opportunities off corners, but we're not getting much through the run of play," Johnson said. "It'll help as Cat Raster gets more fit and gets back to what she's capable of.

"We're still not quite where we need to be though."

Evansville outshot IUPUI 18-9 and 11-3 on goal. Schmidt finished with nine saves in the loss. 

IUPUI will return home and play a pair of matches in Indy next weekend. The Jaguars will play at Marian at 7:00 p.m. on Friday night (Sept. 18) before returning home to host Murray State on Sunday (Sept. 20). 

"Hopefully we can come home, get two (wins) and get back to .500," Johnson said.