STEUBENVILLE, Ohio— Lady Baron soccer suffered its first loss of the season in a 1-0 game against St. Vincent College. Despite being plagued by heat and fatigue both teams kept up a high intensity in an evenly matched game.

"This was a tough loss but St. Vincent is always a very good team," head coach Clare McBane said. "They've beat us in the past and it's always very even like it was today."

The Bearcats peppered the Lady Baron goalkeeper, Mallory Garthwaite early in the game and eventually found the back of the net in the fifteenth minute. Despite the early setback, McBane said she was happy with how her team responded.

"This is the third game the girls have had a goal put in on them and after every time they stay very centered, very focused and mentally in the game," McBane said.

Staying particularly composed for the Lady Barons was junior goalkeeper Garthwaite. She made save after save and was demonstrative in her direction of the FUS defense.

"Mallory played fantastically," McBane said. "Her movement and her composure outside of the box is what saves us consistently on long balls over the top."

Another factor that kept the Lady Barons in the game was the constant flow of new energy coming from their substitute players. After struggling to generate much offense in the first half, the presence of fresh players, including sophomore midfielders Lauren Stearman and Hannah Cooke.

The fresh legs and smart play from the FUS subs gave the offense new life and a number of scoring chances including three solid looks from Cooke who almost tied up the game at the end of the second half.

"Our subs helped a lot and I think it's what kept us at 1-0 and gave us the shots that we did get," McBane said. "We're getting a lot more opportunities on goal than we have in the past and now we've just got to finish them."

With no conference games until October McBane said her team is using the non-conference schedule as a time for training and to work on challenges for when conference play does come around.

"The girls are working really hard in practice and we are looking at this entire time as training," McBane said. "We are working just has hard in practices as we are in games so they were tired for this game."

The Lady Barons continue their season when they go head to head with Thiel College Wednesday Sept. 11 at home at 3p.m.