Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
Morehead State
Llewellyn's Three Goals Lead Racers To OVC Victory
9/30/2005 5:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
"This was our blueprint game," said Murray State Head Coach Mike Minielli. "This is exactly the way we have to play all year."
Murray State spent the first 10 minutes of the match getting a feel for the Eagles and then spent the rest of the half on the attack. MSU's first shot resulted in its first goal. Melissa Curry's pass found Rebekah Clay on the right side, who in turn found Llewellyn in the center. The Island Lake, Ill., native drew the Morehead goalkeeper to the right and then beat her with a shot to the left to stake the Racers to a 1-0 lead at the 13:12 mark.
Less than 10 minutes later, Curry passed the ball ahead into the box to set up a race to the ball between Llewellyn and Eagle keeper Leslie King. Llewellyn got to the ball a split second before King and scored goal number two in the 22nd minute. Two of Murray State's first three shots in the game went for scores.
"We made an effort to come out aggressive early," Minielli said. "We started playing faster and kept that speed up the whole game."
Four of the Racers seven first period shots were on goal. Morehead State attempted four shots in the first 45 minutes of play.
"This was the first time all season that our offense and our defense both played to a high level in the same game," said Minielli. "This is actually the best our defense has been all season."
Llewellyn's third goal came at the 74:37 mark. Jen Nowak's pass found Llewellyn on the right side, five yards out and the freshman secured her first "hat-trick" with a shot to the left side. Llewellyn finished with a game high five shots, all of which were on-goal.
For the game, Murray State out-shot the Eagles 16-8 and held a 7-6 advantage in corner kicks. Fortier recorded four saves while playing 90 minutes in net. King finished with five saves for Morehead.
With the win, MSU improved to 5-1-0 all-time against Morehead State.
The Racers will try to even their OVC record when they host Eastern Kentucky University on Sunday at Cutchin Field on the MSU campus. The match is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m.
"Sunday is a big game for us," added Minielli. "We have to match the energy we had today, it has to carry over."
