The Oberlin College women’s soccer team laced up their cleats and stepped onto the field with confidence this past week in their first two North Coast Athletic Conference games against Hiram College and Denison University. After winning their three preceding games, the Yeowomen were looking to go out strong in their first conference showdowns.

Unfortunately, Oberlin was unable to pull it together in Saturday’s match against Hiram College. Hiram scored the only goal on a penalty kick 25 minutes into the game — a disappointing goal that the Yeowomen struggled to answer.

Junior Leah Bellow-Handelman was not disillusioned by the loss. “We fought hard but in the end, we were just really unlucky,” she said

After the game sophomore Jess Greenberg commented, “We came into the game maybe a little too confident. We were dominating and taking shots, Hiram just stepped it up and snuck in a penalty kick,”

Coming off Saturday’s match positive and ready to go, the brave Yeowomen were able to hold off nationally-ranked Denison University for the entire first half of Wednesday’s game.

“Denison was clearly better. They are ranked sixth in the country. We fought really hard, though,” said Greenberg.

First-year goalkeeper Kathleen Keating held strong with 11 total saves against Denison’s aggressive offense, who came out forcefully in the second half and were able to knock in four goals.

“We surprised ourselves. The game gave the team a lot of confidence,” added Greenberg.

The Yeowomen found many positive aspects in playing nationally-ranked teams in the NCAC such as Denison University.

“We have become more intense with each game. We keep trying to maintain this winning attitude. It’s pretty incredible to play the most competitive team in our conference and hold them off the entire first half,” Bellow-Handelman reflected.

This week’s match-ups drop Oberlin to 0-2 in the conference. The Yeowomen travel to Wittenberg University on Saturday for their third NCAC game of the season.