Murray State University Athletics
Racer Soccer Set For OVC Tournament
10/31/2005 6:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Murray State is the tournament's fourth seed and is making its second consecutive trip to the OVC Tournament. The Lady Govs are the fifth seed and making their first appearance in the league tourney.
The Racers went 7-10-2 during the regular season. Murray State finished its conference slate with a 5-3-1 mark, its second straight winning record in league play. The five wins are the most OVC victories in the six-year history of the program.
Austin Peay is 9-9-0. The Lady Govs went 5-4-0 in the OVC. The five wins are the most league victories in the four-year history of the APSU program. In three seasons prior to 2005, the Lady Govs were 2-18-2 in OVC matches.
In their only meeting of the season, the Lady Govs beat the Racers, 3-1, on Sept. 23 in Clarksville, Tenn. Austin Peay got on the board quickly, scoring its first goal 27 seconds into the match and adding another in the eighth minute. Erica Dengler scored the first and Ashley Beck recorded the second. Adonia Bivins assisted on both. Murray State cut the deficit to one by scoring with 47 seconds to go in the first period.
MSU could not push across the tying score and with 13 and a half minutes left the Lady Govs sealed the win with Dengler's second goal of the game.
Austin Peay out-shot the Racers 16-5 in the first half and 24-12 for the match. Sarah Broadbent went the distance in net for the Lady Govs, allowing just one goal and making four saves.
A trio of freshmen leads the Murray State offense in 2005. Krista Llewellyn and Rebekah Clay are tied for the team lead with seven goals and 17 points. Fellow freshman Melisa Curry leads the squad with five assists and is third with four goals and 13 points.
The defense is led by juniors Laura Oppegard and Heather Jones, and sophomores Sara Struve and Jen Peios. The Racer "D" has allowed less than one goal per game (0.96) in its nine OVC games. In those nine matches only three teams scored more than one goal and four were shutout.
Jones has recorded three shutouts in net for MSU. She has a 1.00 goals-against-average on the season and a 0.74 goals-against-average against OVC teams.
Beck, a freshman, leads Austin Peay with seven goals and 14 points. Bivins leads the Lady Govs with six assists. Broadbent has played every minute in goal. She has 97 saves and a 1.43 goals-against-average to go along with her six shutouts.
The winner of Tuesday's game advances to a semifinal match-up with OVC regular season champion Samford on Friday at 12:30 p.m. The semifinals and finals will be played in Charleston, Ill., and hosted by Eastern Illinois University. The championship match will air live on ESPNU at 12:00 p.m., on Sunday.
In the other first round game, Southeast Missouri State, the three seed, will host sixth seeded Jacksonville State at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The winner of that match faces number two seed Eastern Illinois in the semifinals at 10:00 a.m., on Friday.
