(August 21, 2025) Mena, Arkansas - After a rough ending to the 2024 season, the Bucks were eager to get back on the pitch with a new group of faces joining a pair of sophomore returners. The 2025 campaign began this afternoon at Tapley Park, as the ladies took on Coffeyville Community College out of Kansas.
After a week of preparation, the team was still trying to find it's own personality and profile. This opening game against a very good Coffeyville team was an excellent opportunity to start the evaluation process moving forward. The openin minutes in the game were dominated by Coffeyville, as they kept possession of the ball and made some intelligent probing forward passes which had UARM on the back foot. The Bucks defense stood firm, and the team was able to use this as a strong foundation to begin to find attacking patterns of play themselves. It was from one of these attacking combinations that UARM took the lead in the 9th minute. Flavia Marcano (Porter, TX) made a promising through ball which Maya Lane (Southend-on-Sea, England) ran onto, held off a defender and turned to hit a powerful shot into the goal from 10 yards out to give the Bucks an early 1-0 lead.
The game continued with both teams keeping each other at arms length to create a slug fest in midfield. The heat slowed the pace of the game down and started to effect all the players on both teams, hence the constant line changes by UARM in an attempt to keep as many players as fresh as possible as half time loomed.
The second half started with Coffeyville coming fast out of the blocks to put pressure on the Bucks in possession. This added pressure led to a few more give-a-ways in midfield by the Bucks which Coffeyville took advantage of in the 58th minute. A lost ball in midfield was turned over and played behind the Bucks defensive line, and the striker held the ball up and cut it back for a support runner coming onto the ball to smash it into the net.
The 1-1 score only lasted 2 minutes as UARM quickly responded with another go-ahead goal. The ball was played into the penalty area and Gavi Urias (Little Rock, AR) caused enough chaos in the box for the ball to spill out into the path of Solange Depirou (St. Albans, England) who struck the ball into the right side of the net for the 2-1 lead.
The game became more open as Coffeyville pushed a defender into attack to force the play as UARM had to concentrate on their defensive duties while looking for possible quick transition plays in response. There were numerous opportunities for UARM to break through, but the last pass was lacking in quality and allowed Coffeyville to recover and then push forward themselves. Coffeyville almost got through in the dying minutes but Marcele Luiza Saravia (Florianopolis, Brazil) in goal was able to sweep up behind a strong defensive effort from Addison Gonzalez (Wylie, TX) and Rose Bilyeu (Bonner Springs, KS).
Coach Sherry was pleased with the first match for the ladies. "This was a great test for the ladies. Coffeyville was a very technical team with some excellent players who really tested us. We learned a lot and have some things we can now work on next week in practice as we aim to develop and improve."
The ladies have a day off before taking on UA Cossatot on Saturday at Tapley Park. Kickoff is scheduled for 10 am.
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