Pack loses 2 games, key player

By: Juan López

Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 12:44 AM

Despite some gritty play this past weekend, the Wolf Pack went 0-2 and dropped to 0-3 on the season. Photo by Laura Benavides/The Nevada Sagebrush

As if losing two games this past weekend wasn’t enough, the Wolf Pack soccer team will also be without one of its top offensive players for a large part of the season.

Nevada went 0-2 in its first homestand of the year, losing to the University of California, Santa Barbara 1-0 on Friday and 3-0 to the University of California, Irvine on Sunday.

In three games this season, the Wolf Pack (0-3) has scored just one goal, but head coach Jaime Frias said that was a by-product of the team focusing on the defensive side of the ball more.

“We’re not just focusing on the attacking end at this point,” the second-year head coach said after the UCSB game. “We’ve had almost three weeks to practice and that’s been our main concern is defensive and staying in defensive shape. We think we have a pretty good handle on that and it’s a long season so now we’re going to start working more on the attacking side of the ball.”

A factor that won’t help the Wolf Pack’s offensive cause is the loss of Cristen Drummond. The junior midfielder suffered a knee injury during Nevada’s first game of the season on Aug. 21 at the University of California, Berkeley. Drummond was named to the all-Western Athletic Conference First Team last year after leading Nevada with four goals and 45 shots. Frias said she is expected to be out two to six weeks.

“(Drummond’s) an impactful player on our team and she can add a lot of things to the attack so she’s going to be missed for those two to six weeks,” Frias said.

Despite losing one of its top players early in the season and dropping its first three games, Nevada has remained optimistic about the season so far.

Erin Smith, a junior defender for the Wolf Pack, said she thought this year’s team was better than last year’s at the same point in the season.

“I think we’re a lot more optimistic about how the season’s going to go,” she said. “Everyone’s bought into the system and the coaches and our way of play a lot more. It’ll take time, but we’ll get a lot better.”

With an injury-shortened offense but a hopeful attitude, the Wolf Pack will hit the road and play Oregon State 8 p.m. Friday and Portland State at 1 p.m. Sunday. The team will play its next home game at 7 p.m. Sept. 11. against Fordham University.

Juan López can be reached at jlopez@nevadasagebrush.com.