Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
UT Martin
Halloween Soccer Awaits Racers At UTM
10/30/2014 4:55:00 PM | Women's Soccer
The Murray State Racers finish the Ohio Valley Conference women's soccer regular season on Halloween when they play Friday at UT Martin. The match kicks off at 7 p.m. at Skyhawk Field. The game marks the first time the Racers have played on Oct. 31 since the 2008 season. MSU has played on Halloween twice before, in 2008 at Lipscomb and 2001 at UTM.
The game finds the Racers playing for seeding as they enter the UTM game with a chance to grab the third seed in next week's OVC Tournament. The Racers (10-8, 6-3 OVC) take on the Skyhawks (12-5-1, 6-2-1) who have not lost a game at home this season in going 7-0-1. The league champion will host the OVC Tournament (Nov. 5-9). Heading into the final weekend, SIUE and Southeast Missouri will decide where the tournament is played next week. The Redhawks and Cougars tangle Friday at 7 p.m. in Edwardsville, Ill. with the winner taking the top seed and the right to host the event. The winner of the MSU-UTM game will decide the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds.
MSU's Julie Mooney enters the game needing a goal to set a new single-season scoring mark. She has 13 goals currently and tied with Theresa Reedy who had 13 in 2004. Mooney has already set a new mark for points in a season with 29 points on 13 goals and three assists. She is eight shots off her 2011 mark when she had 78 shots. She has 32 shots-on-goal and is closing on her 2011 mark of 43. In career records she has 29 goals, five off Reedy's top mark of 34 set between 2001-04. Mooney's 15 assists are second all-time behind the 21 Rebecca Clay had between 2005-08 and her 73 points is off Reedy's mark of 81. Mooney already has the career mark with 262 shots and shots-on-goal with 129.
Pavlina Nepokojova's eight assists is tied for the OVC lead and one off the MSU record of nine by Lauren McAdams in 2000, the inaugural season for Racer Soccer. Nepokojova's eight assists is tied with Jacksonville State's Courtney Hurt and UTM's Ashlie Watson.
Freshman goal keeper Shelby Haworth is having a tremendous first season with six shutouts in 15 starts. She made her first start (Sept. 5) at FIU and has put together a goals-against-average of 1.05 which ranks her third in the OVC. Haworth is third in the league with a save average of .822. The Racer defensive unit shares in Haworth's success. They're limiting the number of shots she faces as Haworth is among the best in having to make only 4.9 saves per game, whereas the high number in the league is 7.3.
The Racers are coming off their first time being shutout at home in a 2-0 defeat Sunday to Belmont. The Racers ended the season with a 7-2 mark at home which included a school-record seven game streak between a loss to Arkansas State (Aug. 22) and Belmont (Oct. 26). MSU's record run included wins over: Georgia State, IUPUI, Northern Kentucky, Tennessee Tech, Jacksonville State, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky. MSU outscored those seven opponents a combined 22-5. MSU's 7-2 mark on the pitch at Cutchin Field is their first winning season since 2009 when MSU was 4-2-1. The seven wins ties the school record that was set in 2008 when MSU was 7-3-2.
MSU has also improved this season away from home having won their last two at Eastern Illinois 1-0 (Oct. 17) and Austin Peay 3-2 (Oct. 24). After starting 0-4 in road games, MSU has gone 3-2 since. Overall, after starting the season 1-5, the Racers are 9-3 since.
The Racers and Skyhawks have met 16 times with the Racers holding an advantage of 9-4-3. MSU is 3-3-0 all-time when they play at UTM. The Skyhawks have won the last two meetings since MSU's last win in 2010.
