The Butler Grizzlies suffered their first conference loss of the season, falling 2-1 to Kansas City Kansas Community College on Saturday, Saturday, Oct. 5, at BG Products Veterans Sports Complex. This defeat brings Butler’s overall record to 9-1-3, with a 9-1-1 mark in conference play.
The Butler Grizzlies went into the game putting a lot of pressure on KCK Community College. These efforts paid off when in the 13th minute, midfielder Tyesha Nelson scored her third goal of the season. The goal came from an assist from Sakiko Manabe, a sophomore midfielder. The Grizzlies continued to dominate possession in the first half, with several shots on goal, including a near-miss by Ruby Kilden, a sophomore midfielder, that struck the crossbar in the 12th minute. Freshman forward London Ingram also forced a save from Kansas City's goalkeeper Maria Heuman just a minute after Kilden's close attempt. The Butler Grizzlies couldn't manage to score another goal despite all these efforts and went into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
The second half saw KCK Community College back into the game with a new sense of strategy and started applying pressure of their own. In the 62nd minute, the visitors equalized when Jaycee Schumann found the back of the net, scoring her third goal of the season from a corner kick. Two minutes later, Kansas City's Kiara Carr scored her 11th goal of the season, assisted by Cora Ellermann, putting the visitors up 2-1.
Butler fought back hard to erase KCK’s lead, multiple attempts by Ingram and Manabe but to no avail. The KCK goalkeeper managed to make key saves time after time, keeping them on top by preserving their lead. With all these attempts not bearing fruit the game ended 2-1 in favour of Kansas City Kansas Community College.
The Grizzlies neutralized themselves and their opponent on Wednesday, Oct. 9 against the Hutch Blue Dragons.