The Vermont Catamounts women’s soccer team saw its chances of making the America East Tournament begin to slip away after last Thursday’s game against thea University of New Hampshire Wildcats.

“Now we are just fighting for five and six,” Head Coach Kwame Lloyd said about the tournament spots. “We have a bye weekend so UNH just got some points and are going to jump over us — we have to now attack and go after Binghamton and Hartford.”

The game looked evenly matched throughout the first half, with UNH scoring only one goal in the 14th minute.

Then, in the second half, the Wildcats put on the pressure and netted two more shots against the Catamounts, while their goalie blocked every UVM shot attempt.

“I thought we gave up soft goals, and you have to give it to UNH. They came to play,” Lloyd said. “The second goal they scored was very nice and the other two seemed like miscommunications or poor judgment.”

With a final score of 3-0 in favor of UNH, the Cats lost a tough one — this being their last home game of the season.

The top six teams of the regular season standings in America East make it to the tournament. Vermont, 1-3-2 on the season, is looking to win the rest of the games in order to make the playoffs.

With Tuesday’s game against Dartmouth, the Catamounts will try to extend the depth of their team by playing some younger players.

“We are looking at Dartmouth as a game where we can supply a lot of our younger players,” Lloyd said. “We have to gain some confidence in that game. The conference has done fairly well against them — they haven’t really blown out anybody in our conference.”

The matchup versus Dartmouth will get the Catamounts ready for Thursday’s test against Binghamton — a formidable foe in America East and their last regular game of the season in Hartford.

With some success in the next few games, the game against Hartford might not be their last this fall.