London, ON - In their first matchup against Brock of the season, the Western women's soccer team lost 1-0 against the Brock Badgers. They'll look to battle it out at a rematch in Brock on Sunday.

Brock was able to capitalize off a chance in Western's end, with a player scoring top corner in the 57th minute of the game.

Western fought hard, having lots of possession and near chances, but had a hard time breaking through Brock's defensive line. A strong push in the last 10 minutes led to a few scoring opportunities for Mackenzie Bilotta and Thalia Lewis, but Western couldn't find the back of the net.

Head coach Martin Painter expressed "Credit to Brock, they were a really well organized team and defended really well, making it hard for us to create a breakthrough. I thought we played well and did a lot of things well."

Western will look to regroup and get ready to face Brock again on Sunday. Martin agreed saying "We gotta be better with the ball and have more composure when we're building. We're going to have to look at the game, watch some film, and find ways to create more breakthroughs. We had the ball a lot and a lot of the territory, but we weren't able to translate that into clear chances." 

I spoke with co-captain Avarie Thomas after the hard fought game. She noted that "We need to get out of our heads and just play the way we want to play soccer. At some points we were frantic because we didn't have a lead and were down one, we just have to keep our composure."

Thomas has a resilient attitude, saying "We knew going in we had a target on our backs" "We fought hard, we couldn't get a couple goals, but it's behind us now and we're looking forward to Sunday at Brock."

The Mustangs look to find success on the road against Brock this Sunday in St. Catherine's. Kick-off is at 1pm.