Racers Seek Encore - Host OVC Tournament Friday - Murray State University Athletics

SIUE COUGARS (8-7-4, 6-3-1 OHIO VALLEY) NO. 4 SEED
Head Coach: Derek Burton (Arkansas Little Rock, 1997)
Career: 135-102-26 (13th season) • At SIUE: 68-71-20 (9th season)

MURRAY STATE RACERS (8-4-4, 7-0-3 OHIO VALLEY) NO. 1 SEED
Head Coach: Jeremy Groves (Kentucky, 2005)
Career: 35-18-4 (3rd season) • At MSU: Same

The Murray State Racers are proud to host their second consecutive Ohio Valley Soccer Tournament when they host the event with semifinals and championship on Friday (Nov. 4) and Sunday (Nov. 6) at Cutchin Field in Murray, Ky. The event will have live stats from OVCSports.com and live video from OVCDigitalNetwork.com with Graham Doty and Ian Collins on the call as they were a year ago when the Racers hosted and won the title.

The Racers (8-4-4, 7-0-3 OVC) meet the SIUE Cougars (8-7-4, 6-3-1 OVC) in the second semifinal Friday at 2 p.m., after Eastern Kentucky (13-4-0, 8-2-0) takes on Tennessee Tech (11-6-3, 6-2-2 OVC) at 11 a.m. The winners come back Sunday for the title tile at 1 p.m.

The Racers meet the SIUE Cougars for the second time this season and trail 6-2-1 in the all-time series. MSU won their meeting in 2015 and then tied SIUE this season (Oct. 16) 1-1 on the road.

The Murray State Racers enter this weekend with a lot of things going their way in the 2016 season. They just went through the OVC regular season without a loss for a second-straight season and grabbed a share of the league title with Eastern Kentucky. The last time out, the Racers had a tremendous battle at Austin Peay and came away with a 0-0 draw.

Racer sophomore goalkeeper Alex Steigerwald has recorded eight shutouts this season and leads the OVC with a save percentage of .923. Her 0.42 goals-against-average was also tops in 10 OVC matches. She was named OVC Goalkeeper of the Week three times.

A year ago the Racers were coming off the first undefeated (10-0) OVC season in league history and they kept the magic going hosting the OVC Tournament at Cutchin Field. The Racers got a pair of goals from Harriet Withers in a 2-1 win over Morehead State. The second one came with 30-seconds remaining. Withers assisted Taylor Richerson on the only goal in the championship win as the Racers beat SEMO 1-0. Withers was OVC Offensive Player of the Year and Richerson was named All-OVC First Team. Withers (7 goals, 4 assists in 2016) and Richerson (5 goals, 2 assists) are expected to receive All-OVC honors when the awards banquet is held Thursday night.

The Racers are making their 13th appearance in the OVC Tournament since the program was started in 2000. MSU has claimed the championship twice with the first coming in 2009 and again in 2015. Overall, the Racers are 8-8-2 in the OVC Tournament and 2-3-2 in the semifinals. Should MSU reach the final match, they're 2-0 with wins in 2009 and 2015. The Racers 0-2 in PK games with losses to Samford in 2005 and Morehead State in 2008.

The Racers finished the season with a 21-game unbeaten streak in OVC regular season games dating back to their last loss at home to Belmont in 2014. Counting the pair of OVC Tournament games they won in 2015, the Racers are 19-0-3 in two seasons against OVC teams under Coach Jeremy Groves.

The Racers have been nothing short of amazing in the Coach Jeremy Groves era that is in its third season. Under Groves, the Racers are 35-18-4 overall and 24-3-3 in OVC play and on the doorstep of a second OVC title.

If the Racers can get to the title game, they'll face either an EKU team that they defeated 3-0 at home on (Oct. 9) or TTU whom they defeated at home 1-0 (Oct. 5).

Racers Seek Encore - Host OVC Tournament Friday

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Players Mentioned

Taylor Richerson

Alex Steigerwald

Harriet Withers

Murray State University Athletics