On the heels of a six-game losing streak, The Baldwin Wallace University Women’s Soccer team hooked the team’s first Ohio Athletic Conference victory on Saturday, October 19th against the Fighting Muskies by a final score of 4-1.

Previously the team had lost it’s first four OAC matchups and two out of conference games.

After being outscored 24-3 in those six losses, the offense found their footing and earned the victory.

“The team played this game with a renewed passion, we showed high energy on the field and on the bench,” Head coach Jim Wotjkun said. “We exhibited a high degree of grit, we got stuck in hard on the tackles and made it difficult for Muskingum to break us down.”

The team will look to continue with this energy moving forward throughout the rest of the season.

Two of the four goals on Saturday were scored by sophomore midfielder, Maddie Farrell.

As impressive and exciting as this statistic is, Wotjkun emphasized unity and lets his players know that you cannot accomplish feats like this without all members on the team.

“The team as a whole has really buckled down over the past few weeks and elevated the play of everyone,” Wotjkun said. “Culturally we approach practice with the mindset to make our teammates better, and this focus significantly elevates our training environment. Everyone has worked at a new level. As a team, however, we do want to recognize a player at every training session that does what you ask, and that team expectation has allowed us to grow throughout the season.”

As the season has progressed, the leadership from the seniors has been of the utmost importance.

“Our senior class will be missed. Although small in number, they are well respected within the team,” Wotjkun said. “They lead both vocally on the field, set an example of how we do things in the program and hold things together in the locker room as well. Courtney Cofer, Kenna Poptic and Emma Bruno, have all invested themselves in the program for four years. They exemplify one of our core values of being selfless. To them the team comes first and they are daily examples of this belief.”

Wotjkun had an exponential amount of good things to say about this group.

“We will miss their leadership when they are gone,” he said.