WINNIPEG -- The University of Manitoba Bisons women's soccer (1-4) team hosted their home opener at the West Turf Field on Saturday as part of homecoming week on campus. In a windy match against the MacEwan Griffins (3-1-1), Manitoba out-shot their opponent 15-14 (8-3 in shots on net), but the Griffins capitalized when it counted in a 3-1 win.

At the beginning of the first half, MacEwan consistently hemmed the Herd into their end, ensuring they were unable to get any offence going. However, Manitoba handled the pressure well, even managing to get a couple fast breaks through the Griffins back line.

Eventually, MacEwan did manage to find the back of the net. Griffins third-year forward Sofi Lavallee took advantage of a couple unlucky bounces by grabbing a free ball and burying it into the wide open net. MacEwan continued the offensive pressure, going up 2-0 off an Alyx Johnson screamer from the top of the box.

The Bisons regrouped well, managing to get back down field and winning some key fouls. After some sustained pressure, a Paris Sidhu strike bounced off a defender to Chloe Morin. The fourth-year kinesiology major floated a ball to the back post, which bounced in off the bar and goalkeeper to get Manitoba on the board.

Fifth-year captain Jessica Tsai, who quarterbacked the Bisons attack in the first half, got the second started with another dangerous shot from the top of the box that sailed over the cross bar. The Herd had even more chances, but were fighting heavy wind gusts as they tried to even the score.

Even with limited chances, the Griffins managed to find the twine. Second year MacEwan defender Ella Fownes sent a booming strike from nearly 30 yards out bar down to increase MacEwan's lead midway through the half.

Back and forth play, as well as a strong southbound wind kept any sustained Bisons offence at bay. Manitoba was able to get some dangerous chances through, but MacEwan goalkeeper Elizabeth Knight jumped on any loose balls. 

First year forward Nyema Prentice-Whyte -- who had two shots and played all 90 minutes -- was disappointed to see her team come short but was excited to make her debut in front of the Bisons faithful.

"It feels kind of surreal. I don't really feel like I'm here right now," she said.

"This is a great team, everyone works hard, and everyone wants to be here."

Prentice-Whyte has gotten off to a hot start this year, with three goals in the Bisons previous four games. Although she didn't put one on the board today, she said she's ready to put one on the board tomorrow.

"We had a lot of scoring opportunities. In tomorrow's game and going forward we need to capitalize."

Bisons Head coach Vanessa Martinez Lagunas was proud of her team's performance, but agreed the offence needed to be more aggressive, and defence more detail oriented.

"I think we had moments of great football," she said.

"We need to be more lethal, because we had our chances. […] Overall, I am very proud of the team. I think we showed some great soccer, and there were moments of the game we had control of it."

For now, Martinez Lagunas says her squad will rest and recover as they prepare for their match against the Alberta Pandas on Sunday at 1 pm at Princess Auto Stadium.

"We were on the road for the past two weekends, so it feels great to play in front of our crowd and family members. We need to just keep playing our game, and clean up mistakes we made in the backline

Manitoba now moves to 1-4 in the prairie division. The Bisons are back in action at 1pm tomorrow against the University of Alberta inside Princess Auto Stadium.