FRIDAY'S SCOREs
@Murray State 4, UT Martin 3
@Belmont 2, Eastern Illinois 1 (OT)
@Austin Peay 2, Southeast Missouri 0
Jacksonville State 1, @SIUE 0
@Tennessee Tech 3, Eastern Kentucky 0
MURRAY STATE 4, UT MARTIN 3
MURRAY, Ky. - The Murray State Women's soccer team defeated UT Martin 4-3 on Friday at Cutchin Field to move move to 2-0 in OVC play. Goals by Taylor Stevens and Marissa Burroughs and a pair from Harriet Withers helped the Racers pick up the victory.
Murray State (6-4, 2-0) was the first team on the board in the 8th minute when Taylor Stevens took a shot from the far right of the box, sending it past the UTM keeper for the early 1-0 lead. The Racers added to their lead in the 18th minute, when Taylor Richerson played a cross to Harriet Withers. Withers the took a shot low to the corner and found the back of the net, to push the lead out to 2-0.
The lead wouldn't last long as the Skyhawks came back with two goals of their own from Maggie Burkett and Saphyra Jame-Coombs in the 23rd and 33rd minutes respectively, to knot the game at two at the break.
After halftime, it would take until the 54th minute for the Racers to score, as once again, Richerson found Withers who scored for the sixth time this season. But the Skyhawks never gave up, as a second goal from Coombs-James tied the match at three in the 65th minute.
In the 71st minute, Marissa Burroughs got a pass from Destiny White that left her close to the goal. With a hard kick, Burroughs knocked the ball into the top left corner of the goal to seal the victory for the Racers.
Friday's match tied career highs for Withers with two goals and gave Richerson a career high for assists with two. Stevens and Burroughs both scored their second goals of the season in the match,while it was also Burroughs first game-winner as a Racer. Shelby Haworth played the full 90 minutes in goal for the Racers, making four saves and allowing three goals.
BELMONT 2, EASTERN ILLINOIS 1
NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont women's soccer team (2-8-1, 1-2 OVC) used a spark from a late goal to take a win in overtime on Friday evening at E.S. Rose Park. The Bruins defeated visiting Eastern Illinois (2-9-1, 0-3 OVC), 2-1, with a golden goal in the 93rd minute.
Belmont had the first opportunity to score in the first stanza when freshman Allie Svoboda (Lisle, Ill.) slid into the corner after booting a ball into the left corner of the net. As the team celebrated, the officials waved the goal off with a late offsides call. Undaunted, the Bruins maintained their same level and actively hunted for a goal.
It would be EIU to jump on the scoreboard first. They found the back of the net in the 51st minute behind a corner kick. The Bruins fired back in less than two minutes to knot the score using a corner kick by sophomore Heather Ferrari (Duluth, Ga.) to feed senior Sydney Omweg's (Yorktown, Va.) rebound goal in the box. The teams struggled to emerge from the stalemate for the remainder of regulation.
In the extra period, BU attacked from the whistle, pressuring the ball on both sides. The Bruins continued to dominate the time of possession and saw Ferrari send another ball into dangerous position deep in EIU territory. She found Svoboda who redeemed her earlier effort to give Belmont its first conference win of the season with a 2-1 score.
Belmont led in shots, 13-8, while Eastern Illinois led in corner kicks, 6-4.
Svoboda led BU with three shots, all of them on goal. Sophomore Belicia Mendiola (McKinney, Texas) tallied two shots, both on goal.
Junior Stephanie Bukovec (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) finished with four saves.
JACKSONVILLE STATE 1, SIUE 0
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - The Jacksonville State soccer team put together a phenomenal effort against defending Ohio Valley Conference champion SIU Edwardsville on Friday evening and it paid off in double overtime as senior Courtney Hurt scored the golden goal to preserve the 1-0 road win.
The Gamecocks improved to 5-6 overall and notched their second league win of the season. Jax State will look for a weekend sweep while in the state of Illinois as it will continue on to Charleston, Illinois for a Sunday afternoon contest against Eastern Illinois. The Cougars, the preseason favorite to re-peat as conference champions, dropped to 3-5-4 overall and remained winless in OVC play at 0-2-1.
JSU fought off many threats by the Cougars throughout the 107 minutes as the home side finished with 14 total shots. The Cougars also had 10 corner kick chances. SIUE had seven of the final tally in the second half and three in the first overtime period. SIUE did not get a shot attempt in the final 10-minute period. The Gamecocks were credited with seven in the contest and made the final one count off the foot of Hurt. With just three minutes left in the match, the Gamecocks sent the ball down in the final third of SIUE's side and served the ball in to the box that ricocheted off the cross bar and in dropped in front of the open net as Hurt knocked the ball in to the right side for the golden goal.
The win avenged last season's pair of losses to SIUE, one of which was an overtime setback to the Cougars in the 2014 OVC Soccer Championship match. JSU snapped a three-game losing skid to SIUE and evened the overall series at three apiece.
Hurt turned in a match-high three shots, including two on-goal opportunities. Senior Kelsey Bright added a pair of shots in the contest. Hurt's goal was her third game-winning goal of the season and the seventh of her career. The goal moved her in to fifth place on the program's career goals list with 21 career goals.
Sophomore goalkeeper Caroline Robinson registered her second shutout of the season and finished with six saves.
AUSTIN PEAY 2, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. - Southeast Missouri soccer fell to Austin Peay Friday evening, 2-0, in their first Ohio Valley Conference loss of the season.
The Redhawks fall to 6-4-2 overall and 1-1-1 in OVC play. The Lady Govs improve to .500 at 5-5 overall and 1-1 OVC.
The Redhawks and Lady Govs played 45 minutes of scoreless soccer in the first half. The Redhawks got four shots off in the half and managed to put three of them on goal. Angie Mann put both of her shots on goal to lead the offense in the half.
Southeast had three corner kick opportunities while the Lady Govs had none in the first half.
The Lady Govs got on the board in the 60th minute of the match with a goal from McKenzie Dixon. Caroline Wistrom crossed the ball into Dixon who headed it in on the right side to go up 1-0 on the Redhawks.
Austin Peay extended the lead to 2-0 in the 71st minute. Nicole Wojcik scored off a through ball from Mallory Burman that she tapped past Kindra Lierz and into the back of the net.
The 2-0 Lady Gov advantage would stand to the end.
The Redhawks were outshot 11-5 in the match. Southeast was held to just one shot in the second half, which belonged to Mann.
Mann finished with three shots while Lauren Kaempfe and Christina Rohde had the other two.
The Lady Govs almost doubled their shot total from the first half, putting seven shots up in the second half. Dixon led the pack with four shots, two on goal.
Kinda Lierz (5-4-2) played the entirety of the match in goal. She allowed both goals and made two saves.
Lindsey Todd (5-5) also played the full 90 minutes. Todd recorded the shutout and had three saves.
TENNESSEE TECH 3, EASTERN KENTUCKY 0
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Despite outshooting host Tennessee Tech, 22-12, the Eastern Kentucky University soccer team fell to the Golden Eagles, 3-0, on Friday night.
The 22 shots were the most by EKU all season. Redshirt freshman Haley Kemper – the hero in last Sunday’s win over Austin Peay – led the Colonels with a career-high six shots, two of which were on goal. Senior Merrissa Vault and freshmen Tara Claus and Monica Rios contributed three shots apiece.
Abi Gearing got Tech (5-4-3, 3-0-0 OVC) on the board in the 27th minute when converted a penalty kick to make it 1-0. Karigan Owens made it 2-0 when she scored on a corner kick in the 39th minute.
The Golden Eagles added an insurance goal early in the second half when Cassidy Ortman took a pass from Gearing and scored from the far right wing.
Kemper, Vault and freshman Kacy Eckley played all 90 minutes of the match for EKU.
Sophomore goalkeeper Anna Hall made three saves in the loss.