ST. PAUL, MINN. – The St. Catherine University soccer team faced a challenge in its opening Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) game of the season. The Wildcats were tasked with beating reigning MIAC Playoff champion Augsburg University for not only their first conference win of the season, but first overall win as well. Sadly, St. Kate's was unable to leave Minneapolis, Minnesota with a win, as the Auggies scored two late second half-goals to beat the Wildcats 3-1.

St. Kate's entered the game hungry for its first win of the 2017 season, especially if it was to come in dramatic, upset minded fashion. It looked like the Wildcats were poised to earn the lead early in the game, as they had multiple scoring chances early. In the first 20 minutes of play alone, St. Kate's had multiple chances to take an early 1-0 lead, including five minutes in, when Kaitlin Machovec's (Woodbury, Minn. / North St. Paul) just missed the cross bar and the ball soared behind net.

The Wildcats spent a good chunk of the first half penetrating the Augsburg zone, but the Auggies eventually did manage to break through St. Kate's defense. Unfortunately, once Augsburg broke through, it wasted no time scoring the first goal of the game. MIAC shots leader Ashley St. Aubin booted the ball to the left back corner of the net, past a diving Jessica Perez-Adame (San Jacinto, Calif. / San Jacinto), to give the Auggies a 1-0 lead at 15:14.

Roughly 23 minutes later, though, St. Kate's answered with a goal of its own at 38:21. Molly Hayes (South St. Paul, Minn. / South St. Paul) stripped the ball from an Auggies defender and fed a wide open Machovec on the left side of the field. The junior forward duked her defender and shot the ball past Chapman to tie the score at 1-1 just before the half.

The Wildcats continued to battle at the start of the second half, generating several scoring chances early on. Iryna Talkachova (Minsk, Belarus / Shattuck St. Mary's) nearly scored on a free kick from the top of the box, but Chapman was there to make the save. After that, St. Kate's battled and pushed the ball deep into Auggie territory, but the team was never able to find the back of the net.

Augsburg eventually took a 2-1 lead in the 75^th minute as Ciara Gregory scored off a pass from St. Aubin after a scrum in St. Kate's territory. That was not enough, though, to deter the Wildcats, as Machovec nearly tied the game with a laser shot from the left side that just missed going in the net. However, with under two minutes remaining, St. Aubin scored her second goal of the game to give Augsburg the 3-1 victory.

Machovec scored St. Kate's lone goal of the night and led the team with four shots. Marissa Janssen (Oakdale, Minn. / North) and Talkachova each tallied two shots, while Perez-Adame made two saves.

With the loss, the Wildcats fall to 0-4-0 on the season and are 0-1-0 in MIAC play. St. Kate's will return home on Saturday to face Macalester College at 1 p.m.