In the third leg of the Riley Gallo Cup, the Nipissing Lakers women’s soccer team put in a determined effort, but it was not enough.
The Lakers fought for 90 minutes, generated chance, but came up short, losing 1-0 to the Laurentian Voyageurs.
With that win, the Vees took the lead in the Riley Gallo Cup and the 705 Challenge Cup putting the pressure on the men’s game, which followed.
The lone goal, the back-breaker, came in the 66th minute when Sarah Sanford fired home the game-winner.
The Lakers had a chance when a penalty kick was award and Delaney Borsato stepped up to the spot, but her low, hard kick to the bottom corner was knocked away.
Late pressure and chances continued for Nipissing, but they fell short and were tagged with the loss.
Andrea Young led offensively with three shots, but like her teammates, couldn’t solve the strong goaltending of Caitlin McNamara.
Mykaela Volpe finished the game with seven saves, allowing just the one goal.
Nipissing drops to 2-5-1 on the season and will now look to bounce back when they face the Carleton Ravens Saturday and the Ottawa Gee-Gees Sunday.
Both games are set for noon at St. Joseph-Scollard Hall.
If the Nipissing Lakers men’s soccer team did not have bad luck, they would have no luck at all.
Despite a completely dominant performance, the team’s second such game against Laurentian, Nipissing came up a goal short and fell to their northern rivals in the final leg of the Riley Gallo Cup.
The Cup remains in the hands of the Vees, who took home the game 2-1, after building up a 2-0 lead and holding off a late push from the Lakers.
Nipissing fired 12 shots, including five by Nathan Zak, but only managed a single goal.
They struck a couple crossbars, had balls go just wide and miss the net by just inches.
Their lone goal came right before halftime, after going down 2-0, Andy Bago struck home a perfect shot from the penalty spot to cut the lead in half.
The shot was awarded after a foul in the Voyageurs crease.
Bago made no mistakes, but the lone goal was as close as the Lakers would get.
Zak’s five shots, plus a couple from Ryan Roy and William Tsilkas was just some of the pressure the Lakers put on.
Achuthan Shanmugaratnam took the loss, allowing two Vees goals through 90 minutes.
Nipissing, with the loss, falls short of regaining the Riley Gallo Cup, as Laurentian takes it home 3-1.
The Lakers will try to rebound this weekend when they play just a single game, Saturday against the Carleton Ravens.
Game time is set for 2:15 p.m. at St. Joseph-Scollard Hall.
