The Chattanooga Football Club women's team had the first half it wanted Friday night against the Memphis Lobos.
Mistakes led to a second half CFC didn't want.
Gretchen Harknett scored a pair of goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half, and the Lobos improved to 5-0 in the Women's Premier Soccer League's Southeast Conference with a 3-1 win at Finley Stadium.
CFC (2-3) faces the FC Wolves at 5 p.m. today in Nashville. CFC's next home game is against the Knoxville Force at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Former Soddy-Daisy High School standout Summer Lanter scored her first goal of the season, bending in a shot from the right side to give CFC a 1-0 advantage Friday. That held up until the second minute of the second half, when Harknett netted her first goal.
She added her second in the 58th minute when her shot slipped through the hands of CFC goalkeeper Jessica Fraiture, who was staring directly into the sun.
The Lobos scored again in the 68th minute when Salera Jordan fed Valerie Sanderson, who finished from the top of the box.
CFC was able to start mounting more of an offensive attack, which was pleasing to coach Drew Courtney. The team is starting to build the attack out of the defensive side and starting to see some "combinations that we're proud of."
But "big mistakes," as he called them, cost his team Friday.
"I thought we were a bit unfortunate with some of the breaks," he said. "A good team like that will make us pay for it, and that's what they did. We gave them opportunities we shouldn't have, and they made us pay for it.
"Memphis is a good side, but I feel both of their goals came off big mistakes on our end that we gave to them. Eliminate those unforced errors and it's a different game for us."
CFC men host tonight
Fresh off a 2-0 road victory over the Nashville Football Club, the CFC men will host the Birmingham Hammers at 7:30 tonight at Finley Stadium.
Thursday night's win gave CFC a 6-0 league mark, good for 18 points in Southeast Conference play. A win tonight coupled with a Memphis City (3-2-1) loss at Nashville FC would clinch at least a share of the conference title with three regular-season matches remaining.
Luke Winter and Kieran Bywater scored Thursday, with Winter's fifth goal of the season coming in the 37th minute and Bywater's first career CFC goal coming a minute into the second half.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenleytfp.