Women’s Soccer Returns Home To Take On SIUE, EIU

Friday, October 11

Cutchin Field

3 p.m.

Murray State

SIU Edwardsville

10/9/2013 12:18:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Match Notes | Live Stats vs. SIUE | Live Stats vs. EIU | Live Video

The Murray State women's soccer team returns home this weekend for a pair of OVC matches. SIU Edwardsville comes to Cutchin Field Friday at 3 p.m., followed by a 1 p.m. Sunday clash with Eastern Illinois.

The Racers split a pair of game in the Volunteer State last week, falling Friday at Belmont, 3-2, but bouncing back to blank Tennessee Tech, 3-0, Sunday. After pulling ahead on Megg Hudson's 76th minute goal, the Racers looked like they were headed for the win Friday at Belmont. However, four cards and two goals in the final two minutes, including one as time expired, led to a 3-2 Belmont win.

On Sunday, it was all Racers. Rebecca Bjorkvall struck in the 5th minute, followed by Julie Mooney in the 7th to give MSU an early 2-0 lead. The Racers rounded out the scoring in the 31st minute on a strike from Tasha Merritt. Savannah Haberman gathered five saves over 81 minutes, while Kylie Lawrence faced no shots in the final nine minutes in the combined clean sheet effort.

With 21 goals this season, this year's team has already surpassed the 17 scored by the 2012 Racers and have done so with a higher rate of accuracy. Last year, MSU scored 17 goals on 224 shots for a shot percentage of .076. With six regular-season matches remaining, this year's team has scored 21 goals on 156 shots for a shot percentage of .135; nearly double that of last year's.

With nine assists between them on the year, Julie Mooney and Rebecca Bjorkvall are currently first and second in the league in assists. Mooney leads the league with five, while Bjorkvall is in a four-way tie for second with four. Mooney is also currently tied for fifth in goals in the OVC with five.

With just five previous contests between Murray State and SIU Edwardsville, the Cougars have dominated the series over the Racers, 4-1. The lone win in the series for MSU came in 2011 when the Racers topped SIUE, 1-0, at Cutchin Field.

Despite the lopsided series record, all matches in the series have been close. Four of the five matches have been decided by just one goal, including last year's 0-1 loss in Edwardsville, the only exception being the 2011 meeting which went down as 3-0 win for the Cougars.

Despite posting six wins in the non-conference portion of its schedule, SIUE has not had the start to its OVC schedule it was looking for and is 7-3-3 overall and 1-2-1 in the league. Last weekend, the Cougars split a pair of home matches, beating Eastern Kentucky, 2-1, but dropping a 1-0 decision to Morehead State. Kayla Delgado and Alexandra Johnson scored two second half goals against EKU to secure SIUE's lone win on the week.

Delgado currently leads the Cougars on the year with seven goals, the second highest total in the league. In assists, Chelsea Smith and Sarah Doggendorf lead that category with three each. Jennifer Pelley has played every minute of the season in goal for the Cougars, making 42 saves and allowing eight goals for a goals against average of 0.58, the second-lowest in the OVC.

While Eastern Illinois may lead overall series, 7-4-4, Murray State has gained ground recently by posting a 3-1-1 record over the last five meetings. The lone loss over that stretch came last season when the Panthers picked up a 1-0 win in Charleston. At Cutchin Field, the Racers have fared a bit better, holding a 3-2-2 advantage on their home pitch, including victories in each of the last two meetings in Murray.

While SIUE got off to a hot start, but has cooled since starting conference action, it has been the exact opposite for EIU. The Panthers went 0-9 in their non-conference schedule, but have opened OVC play at 4-0 and sit alone atop the league table. Three of EIU's four wins have come at 1-0, including both of last weekend's victories at home against Eastern Kentucky and Morehead State.

Meagan Radloff scored her team-high third and fourth goals last week, netting the lone goal in each contest, both of which came after the 80 minute mark. Reigning OVC Goalkeeper of the Week Cortney Jerzy has played and started seven matches for the Panthers and has made a team-high 40 saves. Jerzy has been in goal for each of EIU's four league wins and has a goals against average of 1.38.

Live stats will be available for both matches, as well as a free live video feed, courtesy of the OVC Digital Network. All links are available at the top of the page.