Offense was at a premium Friday afternoon at the New Mexico State Soccer Complex as the NMSU Women’s soccer team fell to Stephen F. Austin 1-0, dropping their third straight game after getting off to the best start in program history.

The game was a defensive back-and-forth battle with no team gaining the upper hand for most of the game. However, goalkeeper Ashley Martin, who had a solid performance with seven saves, couldn’t keep the Lumberjacks’ scoreless, with the lone goal of the game coming at the foot of SFA midfielder Sophia Fondren off of Katelyn Termini’s assist in the 71’ of regulation.

Shots were few and far between for both teams, with NMSU (4-3-1) taking only nine shots to the eleven taken by Stephen F. Austin (3-2-0). Despite the Aggies’ offense struggles, Head Coach Freddy Delgado was pleased with the team’s play in other areas like defense and ball control.

“I thought our possession was good in our back-third and midfield-third but we needed to be a little more dynamic in the attacking-third,” Delgado said. “We did pretty well on 50/50 balls and we earned ourselves a lot of corners which was good. We just have to capitalize on those opportunities.”

The Aggies are in the midst of a 3-game losing streak, having lost at Colorado State and Northern Colorado last week before coming up short at home against Steven F. Austin. In spite of their current rough patch, NMSU sits atop the Western Athletic Conference standings after entering the season projected to finish 7th in the WAC.

“Right now, we’re going to go back and try to build our confidence and build on the strengths that we have. You just have to work and work and work and eventually things will work themselves out,” Delgado said. “We’ve already done some amazing things. We just have to remind our players that we’re a good team and that we have to keep playing.”

NMSU’s team only needs one more win to match their total for the entire 2016 campaign, making it reasonable to share Delgado’s confidence in his squad’s ability to get back on track. The Aggies look to put an end to this skid, with their next opportunity coming at home this Sunday at 1 p.m. against Incarnate Word.