OXFORD, Miss. – Junior goalkeeper Alex Latham and the Northwestern State defense held No. 22 Ole Miss at bay for the majority of Sunday's contest, but the Rebels attack netted two goals in the final 30 minutes in a 3-0 Lady Demons' loss.
Latham made a career-high 13 saves one game after setting her previous career high at 12 in a win at Little Rock.
The Rebels (2-0) took 31 shots and controlled possession after an opening 20 minutes in which NSU (1-1) matched Ole Miss' ball control.
"We were really proud of the effort early, and I thought we looked great," said NSU coach George Van Linder. "Their coach was yelling at their team, and we had them on the ropes a few times.
"We were happy to do that against the No. 22 team in the country. The defense held up generally well, but as the game went on, I think fatigue got to us in the second game of the weekend. We've got to work on that as the season goes along, and we made some mistakes that we weren't making early on."
NSU took the first shot of the match when senior Camila Ardila struck a ball on goal, one of four NSU shots attempted (three on goal) in the match. Senior Patry Carrion took a team-high two shots, including a well-struck header that forced a diving save by goalkeeper Marnie Merritt.
Latham made plenty of diving or leaping saves, sometimes coming off her line or out of the box to thwart an Ole Miss attack, drawing praise from the SEC Network Plus commentary crew.
The Bradenton, Fla., native has 25 total saves in her first two games.
Ole Miss' Gretchen Harknett found the back of the net from the far corner of the penalty box in the 18th minute, ripping a shot to the far post.
NSU withstood a barrage of Ole Miss shots until the last 30 minutes when Addie Forbus scored her third and fourth goals of the season in the 63rd and 85th minutes, respectively.
The Lady Demons continue their season Thursday at SMU in a 7 p.m. match.
"This is a good weekend for us in terms of getting better, and that's what we wanted all along," Van Linder said. "Little Rock was a good opponent and a battle, and Ole Miss is a nationally ranked team that we went toe-to-toe with for awhile.
"We saw the potential to clean up a few things, and if we can do that and play like we can for 90 minutes, we will be happy no matter who we play."
