TAMPA, Florida - The Embry-Riddle women's soccer team dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision on Saturday evening to the University of Tampa. The Eagles' (4-2, 2-1) first road Sunshine State Conference match of the season was evenly played between ERAU and the Spartans (4-2-1, 3-0), but the home team took advantage of two first-half opportunities before holding off the visitors in the second period for the 2-1 win.

Tampa, who had dropped three straight matches against the Blue and Gold entering Saturday's matchup, struck early on, scoring in the 11th minute on Elena Barr's shot in the middle for the box. Barr's goal came off a corner from Stephanie deLaforcad that was headed toward the middle of the penalty area by Jackie Morris where Barr sprang on it and put it away for an early 1-0 lead.

ERAU had several chances over the next few minutes to find the equalizer, including a header from Hattie Kettle that just missed high in the 17th minutes. 

UT's Lovisa Camel came up with a save on Ragnheidur Gardarsdottir's attempt in the 23rd minute of play and the Spartans had the majority of scoring chances over the final 20 minutes of the first half, culminating in Jalyssa Richardson's goal in the 39th minute, making it 2-0 in favor of the UT.

The Eagles had the better run of play in the second half, and it didn't take long for ERAU to cut into the Spartan lead. A foul on the Spartans in their defensive penalty box with 50:54 on the clock led to a penalty kick for the visitors and Gardarsdottir calmly slotted it home past Camel to cut the UT lead in half.

Oona Jokinen made a nice stop on a Jackie Morris shot in the 54th minute and that was the last shot either team could muster until Marie Myhrvold Seim's shot in the 74th minute that went just high.

ERAU had several seemingly great chances to really make things interesting in the final 10 minutes, including a shot by Isabelle Navren that was blocked, but the visitors couldn't find the back of the net for a second goal

"Credit to Tampa for getting the result tonight," Head Coach Samantha Bohon said. "We didn't deserve to win tonight. We got away with not showing up for a decent part of the game on Wednesday, but tonight we never played. No excuses. It was a poor performance on our part, so I'm anxious to see how we respond."

The box score was balanced as UT held just an 11-10 lead in shots, with both teams having four shots on goal. ERAU held an edge in corners (6-4), while the Spartans committed 12 fouls to just five for Embry-Riddle.

The Eagles head down to Miami Shores on Oct. 2 for a 6 p.m. matchup with Barry.

The 2021 Embry-Riddle Women's Soccer season is presented by Radiology Associates.