MUSKEGON – The Muskegon Risers women’s squad completed its first full season of indoor soccer on Saturday at the Mercy Health Arena, falling 10-5 to Midwest United.’

The Risers showed a lot of fight, as they have all season, battling back from a 5-2 deficit and making the score 5-4 in the third quarter, before falling down the stretch.

The Risers played four games in the non-league season, one against Muskegon Community College and three against established semipro teams.

The Risers finished the learning and growing season with a 2-2 record, and will continue to play as an independent indoor team during the next few seasons before joining a league.

Risers goalie Braeleigh McCoy gets top the ball before the attacker does. Photo/Jeremy Clark

“I think we did well with our progress from the first game,” said Risers coach Deb Pekel. “We are still learning the ins and outs of arena soccer, and we are still working on players to make it to practices and be available for games.

“We are going to stay independent and continue to work on bringing quality players for the next few years, to give us a solid foundation.”

One bright spot for the Risers on Saturday was goalkeeper Braeleigh McCoy, who played the first three quarters of the contest.

McCoy stopped 14 of 20 shots and kept Muskegon in the game.

“Braeleigh is amazing,” Pekel said. “She kept us in early, and if we didn’t have her those first few quarters, we would have had to overcome a much larger deficit early on.”

Muskegon’s Emily Olson gets ready to rip a shot on goal. Photo/Jeremy Clark

The Risers trailed 3-2 after the opening quarter.

Aubree Deroo-Muckle opened the scoring for Muskegon 2:37 into the game to give the Risers their only lead.

Midwest United had goals from Marti Corby (3:21), Morgan Otteson (8:30) and Tara Lierman (9:50) to take a 3-1 advantage.

The Risers responded with a tally from Katelyn Wilkowski with five seconds left in the first quarter.

Midwest United scored the lone goal of the second quarter with a tally at the 8:30 mark by Macy Hollingsworth.

The Risers trailed 4-2 at halftime.

Muskegon’s America Lemus controls the ball while an opponent tries to steal it. Photo/Jeremy Clark

Midwest United increased its lead to 5-2 at the 2:00 mark of the third quarter with Corby’s second goal of the contest.

The Risers mounted a comeback with goals by Sydney Snenk at the nine-minute mark of the third and Emily Olsen at 10:20 to cut their deficit to 5-4.

Midwest United then poured it on offensively, scoring four unanswered goals, starting with Corby’s third of the game 11 minutes into the third.

Otteson scored her second of the game for Midwest United, while Ariana Garcia and Caitie Baron each added a goal to increase the visitors’ lead to to 9-4.

Sammy Hecht cut the Risers’ deficit to 9-5 with a goal 11 minutes into the fourth quarter before Corby closed out the scoring 30 seconds later. It was Corby’s fourth goal of the game.