Road Challenge Awaits Racers At EIU & SIUE

Friday, October 14

Charleston, Ill.

3 p.m.

Murray State

Eastern Illinois

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

10/13/2016 5:07:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score (PDF)

The Murray State Racers head off on a weekend road trip to Eastern Illinois and SIUE. The Racers play Friday at 3 p.m. at EIU's Lakeside Field and then Sunday at 3 p.m. at SIUE's Korte Stadium. The game at SIUE will be carried online at OVCDigitalNetwork.com.

The Racers carry a 16-game win unbeaten streak (in OVC regular season games) into the week. Included in the streak is MSU's 10-0 perfect OVC championship run from 2015, the first in conference history. MSU hasn't lost since Oct. 26, 2014 at home to Belmont 2-0.

The numbers in the Coach Jeremy Groves era are certainly impressive. Since Groves arrived in 2014 as a rookie head coach, the Racers are 38-12-2 overall and 21-3-1 in OVC play. Additionally in OVC play, the Racers are 14-1 at home and 9-2-1 on the road under Groves.

Along with last week's 1-0 win over Tennessee Tech and the 3-0 win over EKU, the Racers have back-to-back home shutouts for the first time since they shutout EIU (2-0, on Oct. 23) and SIUE (4-0, Oct. 25) at home in 2015. The Racers also had a string of three-straight shutouts in 2015 over Belmont (1-0, Oct. 9), Jacksonville State (1-0, Oct. 11) and Morehead State (2-0, Oct. 15). last week, the Racer defense kept the pressure off of goalkeeper Alex Steigerwald as they limited TTU and EKU to only four shots on goal in each game. Steigerwald leads the OVC with 7.11 saves per game in all games, but in OVC play, the MSU defense has reduced her need to make a save to 6.75. She leads the league in OVC games with a save percentage of .900. She is third in the OVC with a goals-against-average of .070.

Harriet Withers enters the week having scored in four of the last five games. She scored her seventh goal of the season Sunday against EKU and tossed in her third assist of the season in MSU's 3-0 win. Withers has 23 career goals and is tied for fourth on the MSU all-time list with Jackie Thomas (2000-03). Withers has 58 career points (two points for each goal, one point for each assist) and has tied Sophie Hargreaves (2008-11) and is third on the MSU all-time list.

The Racers double-shutout week led to the Racers sweeping the three Ohio Valley Conference soccer awards as announced by the league office in Brentwood, Tennessee. Voting is conducted each week by the OVC's sports information directors. The Racers were honored with Co-OVC Offensive Player of the Week by Harriet Withers, OVC Defensive Player of the Week by Ali Critcher and OVC Goalkeeper of the Week by Alex Steigerwald. Withers shared her award with UT-Martin's Amy McGivern.