Murray State
Tennessee Tech
MSU Soccer Gets 4-0 Win Over TTU On Senior Day
10/26/2008 5:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
The Murray State Women's Soccer squad finished off the Ohio Valley Conference season in fine fashion with a 4-0 win over Tennessee Tech Sunday at Cutchin Field on Senior Day as five student-athletes played their final regular season home match.
Rebekah Clay, Melisa Curry, Jane Dewitt, Krista Muilkens, and Kellyn Robison were honored with a ceremony at mid-field before the game along with their families.
Late in the match with MSU already ahead 2-0, the moment was right and will be etched in their minds forever.
In the 80th minute, three of the seniors teamed up for the Racers' third goal of the day. Clay sent a high pass to the corner where Muilkens chased it down and hit Curry with a crossing pass for the goal.
Clay and Muilkens also scored on the day meaning three MSU goals were scored by seniors.
“It was a storybook ending to the day having three seniors score,” MSU Head Coach Beth Acreman said after her team completed a perfect OVC season at home going 4-0. “Our seniors have had success from their hard work, but they haven't accomplished their biggest goal yet.”
That would be winning the OVC Tournament which MSU will host Nov. 7 & 9 at Cutchin Field after MSU clinched the league regular season championship Friday when they defeated Austin Peay.
Acreman's focus now is getting the team ready for the tournament.
"The obvious thing for us is to be a little more savvy with the ball,” Acreman said. “We have confidence and energy and that's a big part of the puzzle, but we want to be going into the tournament playing our best soccer instead of playing on energy.”
MSU's first goal of the game came in the 25th minute when Clay and Curry set up Veronika Pribyslavska who scored her second goal of the season.
Clay's goal in the 43rd minute made it 2-0, it was her second of the season and 24th career goal which ranks her third in the MSU program.
After Curry's goal in the 80th minute, Krista Muilkens added her 21st career goal in the 85th minute for the 4-0 final.
The Racers play their final regular season game Friday Oct. 31 at Lipscomb at 7 p.m.
“That game at Lipscomb is very important for us because some teams will be going a couple of weeks without a game,” Acreman said. “It is important for us to keep our momentum going.”
The Racers won their third straight match and improved to 11-5-2 overall and 7-1 in the OVC.
GAME NOTES
MSU is 8-1-2 in their last 11 games.
The Racers completed a perfect season at home in OVC games for the first time in program history which began in 2000. MSU Had victories over UT Martin (2-1),
Rebekah Clay and Krista Muilkens scored in the same game for the eighth time in their careers, the Racers are 8-0 in those games. Together they have combined for 45 goals at MSU.
The Racers are 9-3-1 in the Beth Acreman era at Cutchin Field in OVC games, including a 7-1 mark in the last two seasons.
MSU hasn't given up a goal in an OVC home game since the 6th minute of the UT Martin game Oct. 5. MSU has three straight OVC home shutouts now and hasn't given up a goal in 353:33.
MSU is 22-13-2 overall in the last two seasons.
In eight OVC matches, MSU has outscored opponents 18-3 including an 11-1 advantage at Cutchin Field.
Some MSU season records have already been rewritten and some may be before season's end. MSU's 11 wins ties the program record set in 2007. MSU has 349 shots taken, the record from 2000 is 365. MSU's goals-against-average of 0.86 (Also the same for Tara Isbell) is a team record besting the 1.25 mark from last season. The MSU individual record of 0.75 was set by Sarah Walsh in 2002. Isbell has already broken her minutes in goal record for a single season 1675:46 to the 1477:33 she had in 2007. MSU's eight shutouts this season is a team record and also an individual mark for Isbell. MSU posted its eighth shutout of 2008 in today's win. The 2000, 2005, and 2007 teams had six. Isbell passed the previous mark of six by Karen Fitzharris in 2000.
The OVC Tournament is all set for first round games Nov. 4 at two campus venues.
Here is the way the seeding came out after all teams played eight league matches
1
2 Eastern
3 UT Martin
4 Morehead State
5
6
The Racers and
No. 6 seed Tennessee Tech will play at UT Martin and no. 5 seed Eastern Illinois plays at no. 4 seed
The Racers will play the winner of the Morehead State/Eastern Illinois game in one semi-final, while EKU awaits the winner of the UT Martin/Tennessee Tech game.
The championship match is Nov. 9.
