ST. PAUL, MINN. – It's coming down to the wire for the St. Catherine University soccer team. With just three games remaining in the 2016 season, the Wildcats are in the thick of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) playoff hunt. After a tough loss to Augsburg Thursday evening, St. Kate's needed a win over Gustavus Adolphus College to stay in a tie for fourth place in the conference standings. While the two teams ended the first half in a 1-1 draw, the Wildcats were unable to come away with a victory, falling to Gustavus 4-2 in the second half.  

St. Kate's could not have asked for a better day to take on the Gusties, who are the defending MIAC postseason champions. In fact, in the opening minutes of the game, it was the Wildcats who played like the defending champs, jumping out to a 1-0 lead thanks to a beautiful goal from Kaitlin Machovec (Woodbury, Minn. / North St. Paul). The sophomore midfielder broke away from her defender just as Julia Zyla (Inver Grove Heights, Minn. / Trinity) made a beautiful pass from the weak side of the field, putting St. Kate's up 1-0 just two minutes into the game.

After the initial goal, both teams tried to initiate and create scoring opportunities for their top offensive players. Machovec had a chance to extend the Wildcats lead at the 16 minute mark off a corner kick by Allie Boucher (Stillwater, Minn. / Stillwater), but Gustavus goalkeeper Ashley Becker was there to make the save.

Three minutes later, the Gusties generated their first scoring chance of the game, but junior goalkeeper Shelby Fehringer (Andover, Minn. / Andover) was just as good as becker, making the save in the coner of the net. In fact, Fehringer did not allow Gustavus to score in the entire first half. Unfortunately, Fehringer was unable to preserve the shut out, as she allowed an own goal at 33:09 in the first half.

The two teams remained deadlocked and entered halftime in a 1-1 draw. However, once play resumed, St. Kate's was aggressive offensively as Machovec had a chance to give the Wildcats the lead in the 46^th minute. Once again, Becker was there to make the save for Gustavus.

While St. Kate's was unable to capitalize on offensive opportunities, the Gusties took advantage of the Wildcats defensive mistakes. Despite making several big time saves, Tayler Koop (Blaine, Minn. / Blaine) and the Wildcat defense were unable to stop two shots from Maddison Ackiss and Jana Elliot, giving Gustavus a 3-1 lead with under 20 minutes to play.

Two minutes after Elliot's goal, Machovec once again breathed life into St. Kate's offense by scoring her second goal of the game off a corner kick from Boucher. Just as the Wildcats were starting to regenerate some scoring opportunities on offense, another costly defensive mistake allowed the Gusties to score their fourth goal of the game.

"We need to give credit to Gustavus," head coach Chris Citowicki said after the game. "They capitalized on our defensive mistakes, which we continued to make today."

While there was still 15 minutes remaining, the two-goal deficit was too much for St. Kate's to overcome, and the Wildcats dropped their third straight game 4-2. Koop suffered just her second loss of the season, while Machovec netted her first multigoal game of the year.

"We have a lot of work to do," Citowicki acknowledged after the game, "but we are excited by the challenge."

St. Kate's now looks ahead to next week, when it will play two must-win games to end the 2016 regular season. The Wildcats will play in their final regular season game at home on Wednesday, when they host Saint Mary's University at 3:30 p.m. at St. Kate's Field, before traveling to Concordia College in Morehead, Minnesota on Saturday for a 1 p.m. game.