Overtime Goal Lifts Soccer Past Jacksonville State

Friday, October 1

Murray, Ky.

3:00 p.m.

Murray State

Jacksonville State

Photo by: Samantha Mohr

10/1/2010 11:21:57 PM | Women's Soccer

Sophomore Danielle McMurray scored her first goal of the season 5:30 into overtime off a set piece in Jacksonville State territory to give the Murray State women's soccer team its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season in a 1-0 shutout Friday afternoon at Cutchin Field.

Sophie Hargreaves took a pass from Rachel Longley off a free kick after a Jacksonville State foul and found a streaking McMurray down the middle of the field with a pass that beat the Gamecocks defense. McMurray's sliding shot inside the six yard box beat the JSU keeper and gave the Racers a much-needed victory.

"To score off a set play is always something fun, we've challenged the girls with a few complicated plays and today it was brilliant that it all kind of worked,” head coach Beth Acreman said. “I'm really glad to see us get the win and get some confidence that the girls really needed.”

MSU ( 2-9-2, 1-2 OVC) had one of the matches' closest scoring chances in the opening minutes of the second half. Katie Wilson first had her shot attempt in the 52^nd minute blocked, but was able to gather the rebound before firing off a second shot that hit the upper right section of the crossbar and dropped before being cleared by a Jacksonville State (3-9-1, 1-2 OVC) defender.

The Racers offense tallied its most shots on goal in nine matches, an area Acreman had keyed in on coming into play this weekend.

“I challenged the girls to get better stats, and while stats don't show everything they do show some things, and we weren't getting enough shots on goal,” said Acreman. “If you're going to score, you're not going to score off every chance you take, and we were getting shots off in previous games, just not on goal. I challenged the girls to get our stats back to where we were last year and today we had 18 shots and 11 on goal. It's exciting to see them work hard together coming off of so many unfortunate losses.”

Goalkeeper Tara Isbell had a quiet day in net, stopping both shot attempts she faced for her fourth shutout this season and 21^st of her career.

MSU returns to Cutchin Field at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday for conference action against Austin Peay.