SEMIFINALS SCORES
#2 Murray State 1, #3 Eastern Illinois 0
#1 UT Martin 3, #4 Eastern Kentucky 2
MURRAY STATE 1, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - Murray State’s Miyah Watford scored in the early portion of the first half on Friday afternoon as the Racers beat Eastern Illinois, 1-0, to end the Panthers season in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals.
Played in a consistent rain, EIU ended the year at 6-8-6. The Panthers will lose four seniors from this year’s team that returned to the OVC Tournament for the first time since 2013. Murray State will play No. 1 seed UT Martin on Sunday for the championship as the Racers improved to 12-4-1.
Watford took a pass from OVC Freshman of the Year Abby Jones and scored from seven yards out past EIU goalkeeper Sara Teteak in the 13th minute. It was Watford’s ninth goal of the season.
The Racers held control of the flow of the match for most of the afternoon as they finished with 25 total shots and nine on goal.
EIU had eight total shots with four on goal. Sarah DeWolf had two shots on goal while Eva Munoz and Itxaso Aguero had the others.
Teteak, who earned second team All-OVC honors on Thursday evening, made eight saves in the match.
UT MARTIN 3, EASTERN KENTUCKY 2
MARTIN, Tenn. - Top-seeded UT Martin defeated No. 4 Eastern Kentucky, 3-2, in the semifinals of the OVC Soccer Championship on Friday. The Skyhawks will face No. 2 Murray State in the finals on Sunday at 2 p.m. CT.
The two teams battled through a scoreless first half.
Less than a minute into the second half, senior Monica Rios put Eastern (8-8-4) on top when buried a shot in the upper left corner of the net from 10 yards outside the box, making it 1-0.
UT Martin (15-2-1) responded in the 63rd minute when Kaci Mitchell took a cross from Alice Adams and scored the equalizer from 10 yards away. Samantha Kelly notched the go-ahead goal for the Skyhawks just over minutes later.
In the 73rd minute, OVC Offensive Player of the Year Amy McGivern rebounded a missed shot and scored to make it 3-1.
That goal proved to be important, as senior Bailly Bounds finished off a free kick with 16 seconds remaining in the game to pull EKU back to within one, 3-2.
EKU goalkeeper Zoe Aguirre matched he career-high with 13 saves on the night. UT Martin keeper Erica Myers made four saves.