Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Eastern Illinois
Oppegard's First Career Goal Not Enough As MSU Falls To OVC Leaders
10/17/2003 5:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
MSU (3-9-3, 0-4-0 OVC) played the Ohio Valley Conference leading Panthers even through the first 35 minutes of action before EIU (8-4-3, 4-0-1 OVC) gained a 1-0 lead on Audra Frericks' fourth goal of the year in the 36th minute of action.
The Panthers pushed the lead out to 2-0 moments later as Beth Liesen scored her 12th goal of the year in the 40th minute.
After holding the lead at halftime, EIU increased the lead to 3-0 in the 79th minute as Sharyne Connell scored her sixth goal of the year after controlling a deflection from MSU goalkeeper Annie Fortier.
Less than a minute later, Oppegard scored her goal on a perfect crossing pass from senior forward Emily Schaller to cut the Panthers' lead to 3-1 in the 80th minute.
EIU added one final goal from Trisha Walter 90 seconds later for the final margin.
"We had the same kinds of problems today that we've been having in our last seven or eight games," said fourth-year MSU head coach Mike Minielli. "We made some mistakes in the back and good teams will always score off those kinds of mistakes.
"We told our kids before the game that, to win, we'd have to be more aggressive than EIU and limit our mistakes. Unfortunately, Eastern was the more aggressive team and they took advantage of our miscues."
A big key for the Racers' struggles throughout the 2003 season has been the loss of 10 players to season-ending injuries since practice began in mid-August.
"Most of our mistakes are by inexperienced players playing out of position," Minielli said. "It's really tough on-the-job training to have to learn new positions against a team like EIU."
Up next, the Racers host Southeast Missouri on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 1 p.m. at Cutchin Field in another OVC matchup.
