LAKE CHARLES- The McNeese Cowgirl soccer squad came up short against a very talented Central Arkansas team Sunday afternoon, losing in a hard fought 1-0 Southland conference match.

This is the first home loss of the season for the Cowgirls, moving their record to 6-1 at Cowgirl field.

With this loss, the Cowgirls fall to 3-2-1 in league play, 9-5-1 overall, while UCA improves to 10-3-1 overall and 5-1 in the conference.

From the opening kick the game had a playoff feel to it with physical play and a fight for every ball.

In the first half there were only a combined seven shots taken between the two teams, four of the seven coming from UCA and three by McNeese.

In the 37th minute, UCA's Savannah Tidd found the back of the net after placing a shot just over the outstreched glove of Emma Roccaforte to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.

The Cowgirls outshot UCA 10-7 in the game, but finished with the same number on goal with five.

"This is a lesson for our team in dealing with the little stuff ahead," said Fitzgerald. "We came in a little banged up, but had people not going to treatment. We have to handle ourselves from Friday to Sunday better than we did this weekend and in a 1-0 game where the shots on goal are equal maybe that's the only difference in the game, we have to learn to deal with that."

McNeese will be back on the field Friday at 7 when they take on Abilene Christian.