Eden Steel/Nevada Sagebrush. Angel Meriwether prepares to throw the ball in for Nevada against the Hawai’i Rainbow Wahine on Thursday, Sept. 13 at Mackay Stadium. The Wolf Pack start conference play on Friday, Sept. 21 against Boise State.

In the last two games of non-conference play, the Nevada Wolf Pack Soccer team faced off against the University of Hawai’i and the University of Utah.

Nevada played their first home game in 27 days in the matchup against the Rainbow Wahine. Kendal Stovall made two important saves in the 11th and 12th minutes, keeping the game scoreless but the Rainbow Wahine would get on the board first with a goal by Leialoha Medeiros in the 15th minute. The goal would be the only one Stovall would allow for the night.

The action escalated after the goal with Angel Meriwether picking up a yellow card challenging for the ball with Hawai’i’s Cristina Drossos. Drossos was injured on the play and would miss the rest of the game.

Nevada spend most of regulation trying to even the score. Their efforts finally paid off as freshman Kathryn Yarbrough headed in a cross from sophomore Hannah Souza after her one-on-one play in the corner.

Both teams seemed to find into another gear, trying to get the game-winning goal before the end of regulation. That did not happen as Nevada was denied twice in front of goal and Hawai’i continued putting shots wide of the net.

Both overtime periods were more of the same as more shots went wide for Hawai’i and the Wolf Pack could not score the two corners they were given in the second overtime.

The intense game — with 17 fouls, 5 yellow cards and a Hawai’i coach yelling expletives at a Nevada player —  would end in a 1-1 double-overtime tie.

After two days rest the Wolf Pack would face Utah at Ute Soccer Field. The Utes would dominate the game in terms of chances as they had 18 shots -with seven on target- and six corners. Nevada had four shots and none of them were on goal. The Wolf Pack did not register one corner in the game.

The only goal Stovall allowed was in the 49th minute when Utah’s Hailey Skolmoski tapped a ball past Stovall from a cross. Stovall tallied a career-high six saves in the low scoring affair.  

The loss dropped the Wolf Pack’s record to 3-3-2. The Wolf Pack look to bounce back as they begin conference play this week in a game against Boise State on Friday, Sept. 21. The match is the first of four consecutive conference road games, before their first home conference game against San Jose State Friday, Oct. 5 at Mackay Stadium.

Darion Strugs can be reached at dstrugs@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @dstrugs.