Eleanor Small walks down the sideline

Eden Steele/Nevada Sagebrush. Eleanor Small walks down the sideline in Nevada’s Sept. 13 match against Hawai’i at Mackay Stadium. The Wolf Pack finish a four-game homestand this week against San Diego State and New Mexico.

The Nevada Wolf Pack have lost their last three games falling to 4-8-2 on the season and 1-5 in the Mountain West Conference. In these three games the Wolf Pack scored just one goal.

On Sunday, Oct. 1, Nevada played Colorado College — a soccer-only Mountain West school — in the final game of a five-game road trip. The Wolf Pack lost 1-0 to the Tigers, one of the better Mountain West teams, currently at fourth place in the conference. Colorado College sent a barrage of shots toward goalkeeper Kendal Stovall as she tallied eight saves in the game. Nevada had seven shots total, with two on goal, both coming in the first 12 minutes of the game.

The Wolf Pack returned home to Mackay Stadium for the first time in just over three weeks against the San Jose State Spartans on Oct. 5. The Friday night matchup ended in a 2-1 defeat. Nevada went into halftime with a 1-0 lead after freshman Olivia Carter scored her first career goal in the 41st minute. Unfortunately, the lead would not last long as Karlee Pottoroff capitalized by scoring on a free kick after Nevada’s Kendall Riley was carded for a foul just outside of the box. The Spartans would strike again seven minutes later giving them the 2-1 lead. Nevada had two shots on goal after but both were saved by Spartan’s keeper Paige Simoneau.

In the latest loss, the Wolf Pack once again could not muster up a goal losing 1-0 to the Fresno State Bulldogs. Both teams registered seven total shots and three shots on goal for the game — all seven of Nevada’s shots came in the second half. The lone goal of the matchup game came in the 78th minute when Fresno State’s leading goal scorer Tori Nicolo put one past Nevada Stovall. The goal was the Bulldog’s only shot on goal in the second half.

The biggest issue for the Wolf Pack is the inability to score goals. Nevada hasn’t scored multiple goals in a game since losing to Sacramento State on Sept. 7, and haven’t scored multiple goals in a winning effort since defeating Southern Utah in August. The Wolf Pack attack has been underperforming when it comes to finishing its chances.

It’s not as if the Wolf Pack are getting blown away in these losses either. Nevada has lost by a score of 1-0 five times this season. Even just earning a tie in each of those games would bring the Pack’s record to 4-3-7. If they won two of those five they could be 6-6-2. The aforementioned game against Sacramento State is the only time has Nevada allowed more than two goals. Stovall has stood strong defending the net but a goalkeeper can only do so much.

This year can already be considered a success for Nevada Soccer as they’ve already won four times as many games as the year prior. Coach Otagaki may be one striker away from having a team that can compete for the Mountain West title in the coming years.

The Pack will get an opportunity to try and get the offense going again in the final two games of their four-game homestand against San Diego State on Friday, Oct. 12, and New Mexico on Sunday, Oct. 14.