For most of the night, the ball belonged to the Albert Lea Tigers.

Friday, October 05, 2001

For most of the night, the ball belonged to the Albert Lea Tigers.

The win went to the Austin Packers.

The Tigers absorbed a frustrating setback at the hands of their arch rivals, falling 3-2 in a Big Nine girls’ soccer game at Hammer Field Thursday night.

&uot;It was kind of a heartbreaking loss,&uot; said Tigers coach Todd Lange. &uot;I felt the girls played a tremendous game, and controlled the game almost every minute and still didn’t get the win. Most of the game, it was our ball.&uot;

The Tigers also owned the lead much of the time.

Mariah Levisen put the locals on top in the sixth minute of the first half, beating the goalie on a low, outside shot to score unassisted.

The Packers knotted it with 14 minutes left in the half, but the Tigers regained the lead 10 minutes later on a goal by Amy Marka; Brooke Plantage assisted.

It remained 2-1 until 13 minutes left in regulation, when Austin again tied it. The Packers scored the gamewinner on a corner kick about four minutes after that.

The Tigers – in particular Marka, Amy Ravenhorst and Levisen – had many more scoring opportunities but couldn’t capitalize. Albert Lea outshot Austin 21-7.

Liz Reynen was in goal for the Tigers. She played well, according to Lange, but Austin’s last two scores would have been tough to stop.

The tying goal came on a fast-break situation that the Tigers’ Holly Nelson initially thwarted, but the ball popped loose and was picked up by a trailing player, who beat Reynen with a point-blank shot. The go-ahead goal came as the corner kick bounced in front of the net.

Playing a strong game, according to Lange, were Ravenhorst, Marka, Levisen and sweeper Stephanie Overgaard.

The Albert Lea ninth-grade team tied 2-2 with Austin’s junior varsity.

The loss dropped the Tigers’ record to 5-8-3 overall and 4-5-3 in the Big Nine. They play Saturday at 1 p.m. at Winona.