It was a historic moment for the second-placed University of Melbourne, with the match, which was held at Melbourne University Oval on Saturday, celebrating the 70^th anniversary of the club and marking the first time a women’s game had been played on the main oval. 

Kaitlyn Waldie played her first match of the season for the Strikers after goalkeeper Kate Lyon had to miss due to unavailability. 

Strikers’ coach Laura Brady said news before the match that Lisie Dodds would be out for 12 weeks with a knee injury had been a blow to the team’s forward structure. 

Matters did not get any better for the Strikers, with the experienced Alyson Pym withdrawn from the game midway through with illness.

“The girls started brightly with much more intensity and frustrated Melbourne Uni for the first 40 minutes of the game,” Brady said.

“Their breakthrough came after Alyson Pym had to be withdrawn with illness and they took advantage of the period of reorganisation.”

Emily Johns was dominant for the University of Melbourne, scoring a game-high three goals, despite only having scored one other goal for the season.

While Elena Reid scored one in her second game for the season and first game in a month.

“They were certainly the more skillful side, they moved the ball very well but we showed more discipline than previous weeks,” Brady said.

“While the result is disappointing, there were aspects of the performance that we can build on moving into next week.”

Brady said the midfield trio of Natalie Barbara, Claire Demuth and Molly Esmonde did well against a much more experienced opponent. 

But the team would now have to “think creatively” about how to overcome the loss of Dodds and the use of Pym in defence.

The Strikers remain at the bottom of the ladder and are yet to notch a win.