Lakeland’s women’s soccer team lost their first conference game of the season 5-1 to Benedictine University Saturday afternoon in Lisle, Ill.

Lakeland trailed Benedictine 1-0 at halftime but couldn’t withstand a two minute Eagle scoring barrage in the beginning of the second half orchestrated by freshman midfielder Rachel Wilson.

Wilson got Benedictine off the mark in the thirty-first minute with an unassisted goal.

“We actually defended the play well,” head coach David Madsen said. “Their forward made a good play on a tackle and the girl who scored was in the right place to put away the goal.

“Defensively, we did a lot of things that we needed to do. The chances that we gave them were chances we could deal with, and Whitney England came up with a few big plays in goal.”

Benedictine standout Rachel Wilson scored one goal in the forty-ninth minute and assisted on two more moments later to put the Eagles up 4-0.

“We got caught playing too high up the field in that spurt,” Madsen said. “The rest of the half was good, and if we can sustain that kind of defending, we’ll be fine.”

Sophomore Dana Schmidt had the lone Muskie score, moving up from defense on a corner kick to punch in an unassisted goal on a scramble in the box.

“Dana’s a hungry player, and when the service came across the box she was in the right spot and willed the ball over the line,” Madsen said. “Dana’s scored our last 2 goals and she’s taken a lot of personal responsibility over the past week or two with all of the injuries we’ve had.

“The first thing that goes down when you’re frustrated is your work rate, but all of the girls battled really hard. I think when someone on the attacking end gets goals, things will get much easier.”

The Muskies play host to Concordia Chicago this Saturday at noon.