JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Kennesaw State women’s soccer team couldn’t come out of its River City weekend with a split as it lost to North Florida, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon at Hodges Stadium.

The loss drops the Owls to 5-6-1 (1-3 A-Sun) on the year, while the win improves the Ospreys to 6-7-1 (2-2 A-Sun) for the season. The loss also marks the first time in program history that KSU has lost to North Florida as it is now 9-1-1 all-time against them.

The Black and Gold made some pregame adjustments to combat UNF’s formation and they were very affective as KSU dominated play in the beginning stages of the match.

Senior Shelby Cosby had Kennesaw State’s best scoring opportunity of the first half in the 21^st minute. The Albany, Ga. native was sent in on a nice deep ball by redshirt-freshman Jewelia Strickland, but she couldn’t slip it past North Florida goalkeeper Megan Dorsey keeping the game scoreless.

North Florida got on the board first just a few minutes later as Kathryne Husted hit a shot with her right foot from inside the box that got past Kennesaw State goalkeeper Melissa Hutto in the upper-left corner to make the score 1-0.

The Ospreys outshot the Owls 6-4 in the first half, and UNF also held a 6-0 advantage in corner kicks.

The North Florida defense really locked down in the second half not letting the Owls get much going offensively. KSU tried to press up in the final minutes of the game to try to get something going, but the UNF defense wouldn’t oblige as the game ended with a final score of 1-0.

“It was a hard-fought game,” head coach Rob King said. “We outshot our opponent on the road and created enough good chances to win it. The difference was that we couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net.”

For the match the Owls outshot the Ospreys 11-9, while Hutto made four saves in the losing effort.

Kennesaw State will now return home to get ready to host Stetson at KSU Soccer Stadium on Friday, October 7 at 7 p.m.