ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Concordia-St. Paul soccer team (9-4-3, 6-4-3 NSIC) fell 1-0 against Northern State (8-7-1, 6-6-1 NSIC) at home on a windy Sunday afternoon. The loss is only the fourth for the Golden Bears so far this season, with two of those losses coming against ranked opponents.
 
With a week to go in the regular season the Bears now sit in sixth place in the NSIC. St. Cloud State defeated Southwest Minnesota State on Sunday to take sole possession of fourth place and Minot State defeated Winona State to slide into fifth place. The top eight teams make the playoff tournament, with the first four teams getting to host a first round game.
 
CSP drops their all-time record against Northern State to 5-16-1 and the Wolves have taken three of the last five contests. Last season it was the Golden Bears who walked away with a 1-0 win, scoring their goal in the first half. This season, it was NSU that scored in the first half, being able to hold on for the road win.
 
Despite the Bears having much of the possession and an 8-3 advantage in shots, including a 6-1 edge in shots on goal, Northern State was the first to find the back of the net in the first half. Wolves' sophomore defender Tori Thorpe took a free kick that carried in the wind and found junior Stephany Estrada who fired a shot into the upper left corner of the net to give NSU a 1-0 lead, which they would carry into the halftime break.
 
The Bears continued their offensive pressure into the second half, taking an additional eight shots, while holding their opponents to only two shots. CSP also took eight corner kicks throughout the half, which gave them even more chances on the offensive end.
 
The Northern State defense held up, though, at one point holding Concordia without a shot for twenty straight minutes late in the second half. CSP senior Brooke Salo broke that streak taking a header shot within the final two minutes that went wide.
 
Salo was a continuous, efficient threat for the Bears, as she took a game-high five shots, four or which were on net. Teammates Jordan Rowan-Stafford and Katri Gifford were also active, taking two shots on goal throughout the game.  Sammie Zgutowicz, Jade Weller, and Jena Berkland each fired two shots of their own as well.
Junior goalie Emily Nelson took the loss in net, and is now 4-2-1 on the year. This was only the third goal that Nelson has allowed this season and she now has 20 saves.  
 
To conclude the regular season, the Golden Bears travel to Wayne State to take on the Wildcats before returning home for their regular season finale against Augustana, which will also be the team's Senior Day, honoring CSP's eight senior players.