Jones' Overtime Dagger Lifts Racers Over Austin Peay

Sunday, October 20

Cutchin Field

1 P.M.

Murray State

9-7-0 (6-2-0OVC)

Austin Peay

4-8-3 (3-4-1OVC)

Austin Peay

Murray St.

Photo by: David Eaton-Murray State Athletics

10/20/2019 6:46:00 PM | Women's Soccer

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Murray State women's soccer returned home for the first time since September 29^th, when they hosted Austin Peay in a First Financial Bank Battle of the Border rivalry match at Cutchin Field on Sunday. While 90 minutes would not be enough to separate the two sides, the Racers prevailed in dramatic fashion as they defeated the Governors by a score of 2-1 in double overtime in Murray, Kentucky.

Austin Peay opened the scoring in the 17^th minute, when Ashley Whittaker took a shot from the right wing that found the back of the net to give the Governors a 1-0 lead.

The Racers would answer with authority in the 30^th minute, however, when Arianna Mendez equalized from long range - finding the top corner with an outstanding strike to knot the game at 1-1 with 15 minutes left in the first half.
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Outshooting the Governors 16-5 heading into the break, the two sides would be locked at one goal apiece through the first 45 minutes of action.
The Racers continued to display an explosive attack to open the second half as they created several scoring opportunities, but were unable to break the tie despite outshooting the Governors 10-2 in the second half while earning six corners offensively.

Overtime would be needed to decide a winner and, after a scoreless first period, the Racers found that decisive goal courtesy of Abby Jones just shy of five minutes into the second overtime. Miyah Watford dropped the ball back to Jones, who curled a far-post finish from the edge of the penalty area to secure a 2-1 double overtime victory in front of a plethora of Racer faithful in Murray State's return to Cutchin Field.

"I thought it was a great performance to be honest. I think that it was dominant from start to finish. Credit to Austin Peay - they made things difficult and went ahead to start with, but I said at halftime that there's nothing wrong with our performance. We're kind of just going through a patch right now where things are bouncing the other way. I said that we'd have to grind this out and they did. I thought our midfield was fantastic and our back four were really good today," said MSU head coach Matt Lodge.

For Mendez, the 17^th minute goal is her second in as many games and her third of the season, while the winner from Jones brings her season total to four goals on the year.

The assist from Miyah Watford increases her point total to a team-leading 29 on the season, tying the Murray State single-season points record held by Harriet Withers (2015) and Julie Mooney (2014).

As a team, the Racers outshot the Governors 29-9 overall (14-6 on target), while earning 11 corner kicks to Austin Peay's one.

The Racers (9-7, 6-2 OVC) will be back in action on Friday, when they travel to Belmont to begin the final weekend of regular season competition. Kickoff is slated for 4:00 p.m.