Women's Soccer suffers first NACC loss against Aurora

AURORA, Ill. – The Concordia University Wisconsin Women's Soccer team suffered its first Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference setback, falling to seven-time league champion Aurora University, 3-1, Saturday at Vago Field.

Aurora received a star performance from Nicci Bermudes as she recorded a hat trick, each goal coming early in the opening half. The Spartans held a 3-0 lead before freshman Rachel Suarez (Mt. Prospect, Ill.) put the Falcons on the board at the 30:16 mark. That would be all the scoring for the contest which saw Aurora gain a two-goal victory.

Bermudes did all of her damage early in the match as her three goals all came in the opening 16:16 of play. She scored just 2:06 into the match off a pass from Debbie McLaughlin and followed that with two more goals on assists from Lisa Bajkowski at the 4:52 and 16:16 marks, respectively.

Freshmen Ariana Worthing (Saginaw, Mich.) and Alyssa Schmitt (Cedar Grove, Wis.) split time in net for CUW as Worthing took the loss. She had yet to allow a goal in conference play this season before Saturday. Schmitt played 45 shutout minutes in the second half, stopping all four shots on net. Maddy Crawford played the opening half in net for Aurora, picking up the win, while Rachael Warnock was the keeper for the final 45 minutes, making two saves.

CUW was outshot 15-4 as sophomore Emily Ciesielczyk (Waukesha, Wis.) led the Falcons with two shots. Bermudes led all players with seven shots, while teammate Mariah Ziegenbein finished with six.

CUW (7-5-0, 5-1-0 NACC) will look to rebound Monday against UW-Oshkosh in its non-conference finale. The Falcons and Titans will kick things off at 7 p.m. The Falcons next home match is scheduled for Wednesday when they host Marian University at Fitting Field in NACC play.