The South Dakota women's soccer team dropped its home contest on Thursday night against the Colorado State Rams. The Coyotes went on top first, but a quick flurry of goals by the Rams propelled them to a 3-1 victory in Vermillion. USD now sits at 0-3 on the year while CSU improves to 2-1 on the young season.
 
After a scoreless first half, South Dakota broke open the scoring just four minutes into the second stanza. Taylor Cotter found the ball on the right side of the field with two CSU defenders surronding her. Cotter made a couple of moves and broke through on the left side of the field. She fed the ball to the middle of the box to an unguarded Shaylee Gailus with only the goalkeeper to beat. Gailus tapped the ball in with her left foot and gave the Coyotes their first lead of the season.

South Dakota held on to the lead for over 13 minutes before Colorado State ran away with the game with three goals in less than eight minutes. In the 63rd minute of play, CSU's Liv Layton was driving towards the goal on the left side where she attempted a shot that was stopped by a diving Caroline Lewis. The ball took an unfortunate rebound towards Kaitlyn Abrams who easily placed the ball in the net to tie the game at one. Just over a minute later, Abrams was on the assisting end on the go-ahead goal by Aleyse Evers. The Rams added an insurance goal approaching the 71st minute of the game off the foot of Izzy Wildermuth to cement a 3-1 victory.
 
The Coyotes were outshot in the game 15-4 and had two shots on goal. Cotter led the team with two shots followed by a shot apiece from Gailus and Ashby Johnston. Lewis made six saves on the night in net for USD.
 
South Dakota goes back on the road for a Sunday contest on the west coast. The Coyotes travel to Portland, Oregon, for a 3:00 pm CT kick-off against Portland State this weekend.