QUARTERFINAL SCORES
#4 Eastern Kentucky 0, #5 SIUE 0 (Eastern Kentucky advances on penalty kicks)
#3 Eastern Illinois 0, #7 Southeast Missouri 0 (Eastern Illinos advances on penalty kicks)
EASTERN KENTUCKY 0, SIUE 0
RICHMOND, Ky. - The No. 4 seed Eastern Kentucky University soccer team has advanced to the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals after prevailing in penalty kicks, 4-3, over No. 5 SIUE on Sunday afternoon in a quarterfinals match at EKU Soccer Field.
It is EKU’s (8-7-4, 4-3-3 OVC) third consecutive trip to the OVC semifinals.
After both teams battled for 110 minutes to a scoreless, double-overtime draw, the game moved to a penalty-kick shootout.
The first four Colonels to take penalty kicks – seniors Bailly Bounds and Kacy Eckley, junior Taran McMillan and sophomore Kylie Thompson – all connected.
SIUE’s first PK went wide left, but the next three Cougars buried their attempts.
After junior Erin Torrence’s potential game-sealing PK sailed wide right, SIUE had a shot to tie it up; however, freshman goalkeeper Zoe Aguirre made a save on the Cougars’ final attempt to end it, igniting a Colonel celebration near midfield.
The match was balanced, statistically. SIUE (6-9-2, 4-5-1 OVC) narrowly outshot EKU on the day, 13-12. Torrence led all players in the game with four shots, two of which were on frame. Eckley, Bounds and senior Idalys Rea all fired two shots on the day.
Both goalkeepers played well to preserve the shutout. It was Aguirre’s sixth clean sheet of the season, and she made six big saves to earn it.
Eckley, juniors Rachele Manfre and Marian Wolski and sophomores Katie Shaffer and Jess Philpot played all 110 minutes on a rock-solid EKU backline.
The Colonels will now advance to play the No. 1 seed UT Martin at Skyhawk Field in Martin, Tennessee.
EASTERN ILLINOIS 0, SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 0
CHARLESTON, Ill. - Eastern Illinois women's soccer advanced to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals winning a shootout on Sunday afternoon against Southeast Missouri. The score at the end of two overtime periods was tied at 1-1. EIU won the shootout 3-2 to advance to play No. 2 seed Murray State next Friday in Martin, Tenn.
EIU moved to 6-7-6 on the year as the Panthers advanced to the OVC Tournament semifinal round for the first time since 2010. EIU won four straight OVC Tournament titles from 2001-04. SEMO, which had knocked off Belmont in a shootout on Friday in the opening round of the OVC Tournament, ended its season at 5-8-5.
After both teams made two penalty kicks in the shootout session, the match fell on the shoulders of the final two kickers. Lauren Kaempfe for Southeast Missouri shot first and her attempt hit the right post to just miss. EIU's Itxaso Aguero would make her attempt at the lower right hand corner of the net.
EIU took a 1-0 lead in the first half. Kayla Stolfa scored in the 38th minute as she knocked home a shot that hit of the cross bar and spun into the net. The goal was assisted by Sarah DeWolf.
SEMO would even the score in the 74th minute as Emily Holten sent a cross into the top left part of the goal box where Esmie Gonzales redirected it home for the equalizer.
In the match Sara Teteak made three saves for EIU as SEMO had eight total shots and four shots on goal. Bailey Redden had one save for SEMO as EIU finished with three shots, two on goal.