SUNDAY'S SCORES
@Eastern Kentucky 1, Austin Peay 0
Tennessee Tech 2, @Jacksonville State 1
@Southeast Missouri 5, Eastern Illinois 0
@Morehead State 1, Belmont 0
Saint Louis 2,
@Murray State 0
@UT Martin 1, SIUE 0
EASTERN KENTUCKY 1, AUSTIN PEAY 0
RICHMOND, Ky. - Freshman Haley Kemper made the first goal of her career count, scoring the game-winner in the 58th minute to give the Eastern Kentucky soccer team its first OVC victory of the season, 1-0, over Austin Peay on Sunday afternoon at EKU Soccer Field.
The winning goal came off a throw-in midway through the second half. Kemper – who redshirted last season – received the throw, turned and fired from 20 yards out, striking the post and in.
Austin Peay outshot the Colonels, 13-10, but it was EKU that capitalized.
Kemper and sophomore Jordan Foster led the Colonels with two shots apiece. Gina Fabbro paced the Austin Peay offense with four shots, two of which were on goal.
Sophomore Anna Hall played the whole game in goal for the Colonels and made seven saves. Senior Merrissa Vault and freshman Kacy Eckley went the distance on the backline for EKU.
TENNESSEE TECH 2, JACKSONVILLE STATE 1
JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - The Jacksonville State soccer team dropped a tough 2-1 decision to Tennessee Tech on Sunday to close out the opening weekend of Ohio Valley Conference play.
After opening the league slate last Thursday with a win over Morehead State, the Gamecocks split the opening weekend in OVC with the setback and fell to 4-6 overall. The Golden Eagles of TTU picked up their second OVC win of the weekend and improved to 4-4-3 on the season.
Jax State finished with a nine-shot advantage on TTU with 16 total shots, but the Golden Eagles managed to post a pair of goals within two minutes in the opening half and stave off multiple JSU scoring chances throughout the final 45 minutes. TTU turned in nine shots in the road win.
TTU put the first goal of the contest on the board in the 29th minute as Cassidy Ortman headed a serve from Zoie Hensley and squeezed the ball just inside the left post. The Golden Eagles had 10 of their 12 corner kick chances in the first half and it led to their second goal of the half in the 31st minute. Karigan Owens took the corner from the right side of the pitch and set up Abi Gearing for the header to the far post.
Jax State kept the pressure on TTU throughout the contest, including nine scoring chances in the second half as it finished with seven on goal opportunities. The Gamecocks broke through for their lone goal in the 80th minute after senior Courtney Hurt fed Kelsey Bright with a perfect ball as Bright flicked the ball in to the net. It was Bright's second goal of the weekend and third of the season.
The goal energized the Jax State side, but TTU managed to fend off the Gamecocks in the final 10 minutes of the contest.
SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 5, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - The Redhawk offense erupted for five goals and 23 shots, 12 of which were on goal, in Sunday's 5-0 shutout of Eastern Illinois (2-8-1, 0-2 OVC).
The win notches Southeast's first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season. The Redhawks are now 6-3-2 overall and 1-0-1 in league play.
Natasha Minor netted her second goal of the season in the fifth minute of the match. Paige Blankenheim crossed the ball into Minor off a free kick. Minor just got just enough velocity on the ball to push it past the keeper and put the Redhawks on the board, 1-0.
Exactly one minute later, Minor scored on a cross in from Angie Mann to widen the early lead to 2-0 on the Panthers.
Minor would go down with an injury in the 13th minute and would not return to the match.
The Redhawks would ride the 2-0 lead into halftime. Southeast had 10 shots in the first half to EIU's three. The Redhawks had four other shots on goal, all saved by EIU's Maddie Lyons. Minor had three shots, all on goal, before leaving the match. Lauren Kaempfe had two shots in the first half.
Mann scored her team-leading sixth goal four minutes into the second half. Blankenheim crossed the ball into Mann from about 20 yards out. Mann netted the ball in the upper left corner to extend the lead to 3-0.
The lead was widened to 4-0 on an Eastern Illinois own goal in the 74th minute. In an attempt to head the ball out of the box, Emily Wolf went the wrong way with it, over her own keeper, and into the net.
Maddi Karstens made it 5-0 with her first career goal two minutes later. Shelby Beussink assisted on Karstens' goal.
Southeast finished with 23 shots, one shy of tying a season-high. The strong Redhawk defense held EIU to four shots in the shutout. Southeast had five corner kicks and was called for five fouls. The Panthers had only one corner and had nine fouls.
Abby Klintworth got off a team-high four shots including two header shots, one on goal and the other off the crossbar. Five other Redhawks each had a pair of shots Sunday.
Bianca Nevejas had two of EIU's four shots.
Kindra Lierz (5-3-2) played 79:09 in goal and recorded both saves. Alyssa Sickler came in and played the final 10:51, wrapping up the shutout in goal.
Lyons (1-7-1) went the distance in goal for the Panthers allowing all five goals and recording seven saves.
MOREHEAD STATE 1, BELMONT 0
MOREHEAD, KY. - Morehead State Soccer adds win number one in the OVC with a 1-0 overtime victory over Belmont at Jayne Stadium Sunday afternoon.
In the 98th minute freshman forward Abby Timm took an assist from freshman forward Dani Wilson off a throw-in from the near sideline. Timm sliced from the left side of the goalkeeper's box, beating the defender one-on-one, to net the game winner by the diving keeper, claiming the 1-0 victory.
The win was only the second victory in the last six games for the Eagles, and according to Lipka, his team needed a win. "This team fought today. Some would say this was a monkey off our back, but to me it was Godzilla," said Lipka. "Today we finally put together a top game, we finally put the pieces together for 90 minutes."
MSU featured a new look lineup with three players who started their first game this season, including junior forward Lauren Duffy, junior midfielder Tonia Parisi, and freshman midfielder Shelby Huddleston.
SAINT LOUIS 2, MURRAY STATE 0
MURRAY, Ky. - Murray State soccer dropped its final nonconference match of the season Sunday, losing to Saint Louis, 2-0, at Cutchin Field.
The Racers had many missed opportunities, but none bigger than a missed penalty kick in the 20th minute by Taylor Richerson. Danielle Tolmais took Richerson down in the box resulting in a yellow card for Tolmais and a scoring opportunity for the Racers. Richerson attempted the penalty kick, the second in her career, but couldn't get it past the goalkeeper Hanna Benben.
The Billikens scored shortly after, in the 28th minute when goalkeeper Alex Steigerwald came out towards the ball, making a diving attempt at a save, but Kirsten Clemens was able to get it past the freshman for her fourth goal of the season. In the 58th minute, Saint Louis took a corner kick and as the Racers tried to clear the ball, it rebounded back to Shaney Sakamoto. Sakamoto then took a kick and found the head of Tolmais to put her team up, 2-0, and sealing the win in the process.
Taylor Richerson led the team in shots attempted with three, whiel Harriet Withers and Marissa Burroughs followed closely behind with two. Burroughs made her second career start for the Racers, while Bailey Lankster and Alex Steigerwald made their debut as starters for MSU. Steigerwald had eleven saves in her first start and allowed two goals.
UT MARTIN 1, SIUE 0
MARTIN, Tenn. - The University of Tennessee at Martin women’s soccer team is off to its best start in Ohio Valley Conference play since 2002 after a thrilling 1-0 win against defending OVC champion SIUE at Skyhawk Field.
Lisa Schmieder scored the game-winning goal in the 78th minute, taking a pass from Saphyra Coombs-James on a counter attack and putting into the bottom left corner. The goal by Schmieder is her fourth of the season to lead the Skyhawks but concludes a spectacular weekend as the Elzach, Germany native began conference play with three goals in two matches.
UT Martin (4-6, 2-0 OVC) extended its winning streak to three matches led by freshmen Maggie Burkett, Sierra Franz, Schmieder and goalkeeper MaKenzie Crawford. While Schmieder netted the lone goal on her only shot of the match, Burkett fired six shots at the SIUE goal while navigating the middle of the field. Franz followed closely with five shots taken (one on goal), while Coombs-James attempted two shots along with setting up the winning goal.
In the Skyhawk goal, Crawford earned her first collegiate clean sheet by stopping all 10 shots taken by the Cougars. Crawford preserved the win making four saves in the final 12 minutes to notch her second win of the weekend and third of the season.
SIUE (3-5-3, 0-1-1 OVC) outshot the Skyhawks by 18-14 margin with Cassidy Sherman leading the way with five shots taken followed closely by Jorie Clawson. In net, Jennifer Pelley saw her three-game shutout streak come to an end on the winning goal late.
Both teams opened the match playing defensive with neither team taking a shot in the first ten minutes. In the 10th minute, UT Martin nearly found opening goal as Franz’s shot from 15 yards rang off the crossbar.
Late in the first half, SIUE took momentum and possession as the defending champions looked for a goal. In the 38th minute, the Cougars saw a goal by forward Courtney Benning be negated on an offside call, putting the two teams scoreless at the half.
The second half continued as the first ended with SIUE applying pressure but the Skyhawk defense holding strong. UT Martin nearly opened the scoring on a goal by Coombs-James in the 75th minute but just like SIUE, was called offside. UT Martin continued the pressure and earned the winning goal just two minutes later.