The Detroit women’s soccer team entered halftime of Friday’s match trailing by only one goal and still well within reach of visiting Bowling Green, but the Falcons offense surged in the second half and the Titans suffered their first setback of the 2009 season, 4-0.

A defensive minded Detroit squad contained the Falcons in the opening frame. Bowling Green held a decisive 13-2 shot advantage before intermission, only finding the net with under two minutes remaining. Sophomore goalkeeper Joanna Hinde (Shelby Twp., MI/Eisenhower) was busy in the net, recording seven saves in the first half and 10 on the day.

In 2008 the Falcons topped UDM by the same score at Bowling Green. The Falcons have won two of the last three games in the all-times series between the programs, but the Titans still hold a 4-3-0 edge overall.

Bowling Green (2-2-0) took the lead at 43:33 when Megan Amann placed a corner kick near the far post where Colleen Kordan managed to finish the play with a header into the back of the net.

The Titans attempted to put more pressure on the Falcons’ defense in the second half but were turned away by a stingy back line. Junior forward Selena Stanski (Tecumseh, ON/St. Anne’s Secondary) took two shots and placed one on goal, sophomore midfielder Lauren Roffey (West Bloomfield, MI/West Bloomfield) placed her only shot of the day on goal and senior midfielder Trina Kochanski (Royal Oak, MI/Kimball) took one shot as well.

“I think we came out real strong to start the second half,” said Titans head coach Mike Lupenec. “We were being aggressive and were attacking them more, but then they scored and when it goes from being a one goal game to a goal game, that got kind of deflating for us.”

In the 59th minute the Falcons’ Leah Johnson took a shot from outside of the box that sailed just over the fingertips of Hinde and into the net. Bowling Green netted two more goals in a 12 minute span to put the game out of reach.

“Today was what I expected it to be,” said Lupenec. “When you’re facing a Division I team that’s athletic and physical they punish you for making mistakes.”

Lupenec said he recognizes that hard losses are going to happen over the course of the season and that the loss to Bowling Green served as a wake-up call to his freshman and sophomore dominated roster.

“A lot of the younger players learned what it’s like to be in a Division I battle,” he said. “When you give up a lot of set plays against a team that’s good, they’re going to take advantage of those opportunities and score goals.”

Detroit (1-1-0), said Lupenec, still has a lot of work to do in the upcoming weeks and will face another tough opponent Tuesday in Eastern Michigan.

“We have some girls out there grinding it out and really competing, and others haven’t done that yet,” Lupenec said. “You’ve got to have 11 girls doing that the whole time, and we’re going to see something similar to today when we see Eastern Michigan. We’ve got to move forward from this and correct some mistakes.”

The Eagles are 2-0-0 to start their 2009 campaign after topping Eastern Illinois and Indiana State, 1-0 and 2-1, respectively, and will face the University of Michigan on Sunday.

The Titans tied Eastern Michigan 0-0 last season at Titan Field when Hinde recorded a career-high 12 saves. Detroit is 4-6-3 all-time against the Eagles and notched its last win in the series in 1999.

The trip to Ypsilanti will be the start of a five-game road trip for Detroit. Kickoff is 4 p.m. Tuesday and live stats of the matchup can be viewed at http://sidearmstats.com/emu/wsoc/.