They missed shots to the left. They missed shots to the right. They missed shots high. And it left their coach almost speechless.

But the bottom line was 1-0, as the Mississippi University for women men’s soccer team was shut out by LaGrange College on Saturday afternoon at Lowndes County Soccer Complex.

“This game was a display of our whole season in general,” The W coach Louis Alexander said. “We’ve outplayed teams, and we’ve given up just dumb goals, gifts. On top of that, we’ve created many, many clear-cut chances that we just haven’t put away.

“You can’t do one of those things and expect to win, let alone both of those things and expect to win.”

Making it more frustrating for the Owls was that they outplayed LaGrange most of the game. 

“They won the game at the end of the day,” Alexander said. “They’re a good side, but man, we beat them all over the park except where it counts.”

The loss was the third in a row for the Owls (6-7), who fell to 1-3 at home. The Panthers own a 3-0 all-time record against The W, winning by shutouts all three times.

As has been the case many times this season, one small lapse led to a big opportunity for an opponent. A giveaway on the defensive side of the field was turned into junior midfielder Austin Anderson’s third goal of the season during the 54th minute, with sophomore midfielder Ricky Hammett getting his first career assist for LaGrange.

The Owls continued to attack the net, and freshman keeper Andrew Cole made five saves for the Panthers, but several more shots, including a couple from point-break range, missed the mark.

“I’m usually not at a loss for words, but I just don’t understand,” Alexander said. “I’m a firm believer in creating your own luck by doing things the right way. We played soccer the right way today. It was pretty, it was attractive, it was class, and we’re still not getting that luck.”

The W took 14 shots during the game, putting only five on net. They were caught offside three times to none for the Panthers, and the visitors, who also took 14 shots, held a slim 6-5 edge in corner kicks.

One of the corner kicks drew the ire of Owls supporters, as it appeared a Panthers defender practically caught the ball to Cole’s left. But no call came, and it was just one of many odd calls during a very physical contest.

“One thing we preach, especially here recently, is to be resilient, deal with adversity,” Alexander said. “And they’ve done that, but you can only take so much adversity. Some of the calls I’ve literally never in my life seen anything like that.”

Between the officiating and the inaccurate shooting, there was plenty to frustrate the players despite the fact they, in Alexander’s words, “played really well today.”

“Obviously, they’re not happy,” he said after talking to his team after the game. “If they were happy, that would be a problem in itself, but the message was we can draw from many things: We can draw from the way we played as opposed to drawing from the final result.

“At the end of the day, not only are they human, but they’re 18-to-24-year-old humans. If it’s having an effect on me, a 35-year-old man, I can only imagine what it does to them.”

The Owls won’t have too much time to think about the loss before taking on Talladega, which snapped a seven-game losing streak Oct. 12 with a 5-1 win over Fisk University. Still, the Tornadoes are an NAIA program which offers scholarships and features 10 international players on its 15-player roster.

Game time is 5 p.m. Tuesday in Talladega, Alabama.