UIS Women’s Soccer defeated the Missouri S&T Miners in a high scoring game Sunday, ending their losing streak and putting their record back at .500 for overall play.
“Today’s goal was to play aggressively, to be on our toes rather than our heels, and take it to the other team. But to stay organized and be composed on the ball” commented head coach Pete Kowall, when asked about the game plan for Sunday’s match-up between the UIS Prairie Stars and the Missouri S&T Miners.
He also said, “When you are in a losing streak you can wallow in self-pity and you can feel sorry for yourself but you got to move on, today is a new day and you got to move forward and move forward into the next game. Take care of the next thing don’t worry about what happened before.”
The game got underway and immediately fans could tell that the women’s team was playing aggressively. The first several minutes of the game took place in the Miners back third of the field. The first goal of the game came at just over six minutes of play when freshman forward Eileen Kenny scored off a pass from sophomore forward Kim Tokarski.
The game went back and forth for a while after the goal. Then with a little more than twenty-three minutes to go in the first half, Miner Lauren Todd equalized the score from an assist off of Kelsey Salzman.
However, the Stars would get the final say in the first half. With just under five minutes remaining sophomore forward Carin Fearing put the ball in the back of the net to gain the lead over the Miners once again, she was assisted by senior forward Ally Redington and senior midfield Erin Egolf.
The first half ended with the Stars leading over the Miners 2-1.
The second half of the game was dominated by the Prairie Stars. Only several minutes into the second half of the game, Fearing would once again put the ball in the net after being assisted by Egolf. The goal increased the lead that the Stars had over the Miners to 3-1.
The next goal came in the seventy-eighth minute when Egolf would score off of a free kick just outside the box. Then with just over five minutes remaining in the game junior midfield Katlin Peterson sent the ball into the box off of a corner kick, where senior defender Rachel Neudahl headed the ball into the goal.
The Miners were unable to score the second half and the game ended with a score of 5-1. The Stars had finally ended their losing streak.
“We are on top of the world right and we are ready to kick some butt this weekend, and this was the kick in the butt we needed,” commented Neudahl after the game. When asked about her thoughts going into the second half Neudahl stated “we needed to keep playing consistently. We have had trouble in the past couple of games where we played well and we would get scored on and we would put our heads down and not be able to play. We came out the second half ready win.”
After the game, the women’s soccer team met with local youth YMCA girl soccer teams for photos and autographs. The women’s team goes on the road to face William Jewell Friday Sept. 28 at 5 p.m.
The next home game is set for Friday, Oct. 5th at 5 p.m. for the annual homecoming game against St. Joseph.
