After earning promotion last year, the Ibises got off to a perfect start to the campaign with a pair of wins in their opening two games.
But that winning streak came to an end on Saturday after they were handed their first loss of 2023 by Spring Gully United.
The Ibises took the lead in the first half through Delana Trask, after her strike following a well worked short corner flew into the top corner.
But a penalty on the stroke of half-time levelled the scores and a second-half goal gave United a 2-1 victory.
Tatura co-coach Damien Rosella said his team could be proud of the way it played against one of the competition’s top sides.
“At the start of the game I said to the girls that this will prove where we are at as a team,” Rosella said.
“Obviously they played in the grand final last year, so we knew they were going to be a very strong side, they are a very young side as well.
“We stuck with them. At times we got on top and I thought we were right up there with them, which is good for our girls to know we can match it with the best.
“We know we are right up there with them. We will hold our heads up high and we will be ready to take on the Colts.”
Rosella said he believed his side was unlucky not to be able to come away with a point on Sunday.
“It was a pretty even game, I thought. At times I thought we got on top,” he said.
“To be honest, I think a draw would have been a fair result. A couple of decisions didn’t go our way, but we are not going to dwell on that, that’s sport and those things happen. We will move on to the next week when we play Colts.”
Effort from the team was one of the key elements Rosella said he wanted to see from the Ibises and the team delivered.
“We asked for effort at the start of the game and they definitely gave us that,” he said.
“The way we played soccer was really good. What we do at training has paid off on Sundays.
“At the start of the game we said it was going to be won in the midfield and our girls in the midfield Colette Suter, Cayla Ruijters and Kiara Ruijters played really well.”
It was a tough weekend for the local teams in league one, with Shepparton South and Shepparton United also tasting defeat.
South went down to Strathdale 5-2, while United was forced to forfeit its match against Strathfieldsaye Colts United.
Strathdale’s Stephanie McDonald fired her side to victory over South with four of the team’s five goals, while Ajak Thuc and Rosemarene Legalo were on the score sheet for South.
United was supposed to face off against the Colts in what would have been a third-v-first encounter, but it was unable to field a side against league leader Strathfieldsaye.
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