MOREHEAD – There will be a lot on the line in every women's soccer game across the Ohio Valley Conference on Sunday as all 10 teams compete in their equivalent of "Decision Day."
Morehead State (7-6-4/4-3-1) will also have its Senior Day that afternoon when SIU Edwardsville (2-7-6/1-3-4) comes to the MSU Soccer Field for a 1 p.m. contest.
The Eagles will honor graduate student goalkeeper
Reegan Garrity and senior forward/midfielder
Erin Fite, although it also will be the final home games for graduate student defenders
Anna Lohrer and Maddie Feldhaus. The latter pair were recognized at the 2023 Senior Day.
Both MSU and SIUE will be battling for spots in the OVC Tournament with numerous scenarios in play for the possible outcome.
The Eagles are guaranteed a spot in the field and could finish anywhere between third and sixth. A second-place tie is feasible, but the Blue and Gold fall short in every tiebreaker. SIUE, however, is not guaranteed a postseason bid and could end anywhere from seventh to 10th.
In simplest terms, an MSU victory would assure it a top-four finish and a first-round bye. A tie most likely would earn the team fourth or fifth place and a loss would mean fourth through sixth place.
"SIUE are a strong athletic team. You have a lot of quality," said Morehead State coach Paul Cox.
The Eagles are on a two-game unbeaten streak but dropped their most recent home outing. This past Sunday, they beat Southeast Missouri on the road 1-0. Three days before that, they tied Lindenwood 1-1 also on the road. In their last home game on Sunday, Oct. 13, they fell to Southern Indiana 1-0.
This season, Morehead State is 2-3-1 at home. One more victory would give it its third eight-win season since 2015 and the third straight year with at least a fourth-place finish in the OVC.
MSU is averaging 1.12 goals per game, 12.4 shots per game, 4.12 corner kicks per game, 9.0 fouls per game, 2.47 offside violations per game and 4.12 saves per game. Its' opponents have averages of 1.00 gpg, 12.6 shots per game, 4.12 ckpg, 8.29 fpg, 2.82 offside violations per game and 4.29 saves per game.
Sophomore forward
Hedda Ornberg remains atop the squad with six goals, two assists, 14 points and 36 shots. Freshman forwards
Ava Peck and
Carlie Thurmond are next with three goals, two assists and eight points. Peck has 18 shots. Thurmond has 16. Junior midfielder
Kennedy Baquero adds three goals, one assist, seven points and 31 shots.
Freshman goaltender
Lilly Bailey has a 1.03 goals against average, plus 45 saves, an .804 save percentage, a 4-4-3 record and three shutouts.
Before the game, Fite and Garrity will be recognized.
Fite spent her first season at Arkansas-Pine Bluff, where she ranked among the conference leaders in points per game, assists per game and game-winning goals per game. She continued that production at MSU and sits tied for ninth on the school's career assists list and has a team-high three this season, which also puts her among the OVC leaders. At Morehead State, Fite has played in 50 games for 2,785 minutes, earned 34 starts, scored twice, had eight assists, 12 points, taken 53 shots, 17 of which were on goal, and has two game-winning goals. During her time at MSU, the team has never had a losing record, with a 23-19-13 mark to date. In addition, she has been recognized on the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll. A nursing major from Cincinnati, Ohio, she will graduate in the spring.
Garrity is in her second year with the Eagles after transferring from Kentucky Wesleyan, where she was a three-year starter for the Panthers. She led the Great Midwest Athletic Conference both her freshman and sophomore years in saves per game, while also finishing sixth and fifth nationally, in those respective seasons. At MSU, she has played in exhibition and spring games. Garrity is serving as the soccer team's representative to the Student-Athlete Advisory Council this year and has been actively involved with community service projects. She is currently enrolled in graduate school, where she is pursuing a master's degree in sports management. She earned her bachelor's degree this past spring after majoring in biology with a chemistry minor equivalency. She is a native of Louisville.
"We have a great group of senior players," Cox said. "Reegan has really set the standard for our culture since I've been here. She gives 100% in training every day and is a keen student of the game. Erin has played a number of positions for us this season and all at a high quality. Her work rate is admirable and whenever we have her on the field, we look like a dangerous team. She really sets the standard with her work rate."
With a win, Feldhaus and Lohrer would get an additional opportunity to play at the MSU Soccer Field, but regardless of the outcome, their tenure at Morehead State will also end this season.
"Anna and Maddie have also been absolutely fantastic since I have gotten to Morehead," Cox added. "They really set the standard in absolutely everything we do and do a great job of holding everyone accountable. The impact the four of them have made will continue on in the future of this team."
It has been a disappointing season for SIUE, which has finished in the top four in the conference each year from 2019-23. However, the Cougars have had some success lately with a 1-1-3 record in their last five games. That mark includes a 1-1 home tie against Southern Indiana last Sunday, and 1-1 ties at Tennessee Tech (Oct. 13) and Western Illinois (Oct. 3). Their most recent win was on Sunday, Oct. 6, 2-1 at home against Eastern Illinois. On Thursday, Oct. 17, the club fell at Southeast Missouri 2-1. It has scored in its last five outings.
SIUE is 0-4-4 on the road this season, with its most recent outing, last Thursday's game at SEMO. Four days prior to that, it tied Tennessee Tech. Including a neutral-site match with Saint Louis at the MLS stadium CITYPARK on September 8, its winless streak has reached 12 games (0-5-7) with its last win away from home on Sept. 21, 2023, 2-1 at Eastern Illinois.
The team is sporting averages of 1.07 gpg, 13.2 shots per game, 6.67 ckpg, 10.13 fpg, 1.4 offside calls per game and 3.6 saves per game. The opponents notch 1.47 gpg, 10.1 shots per game, 5.27 ckpg, 11.07 fpg, 3.0 offside calls per game and 5.27 saves per game.
Junior forward Savannah DeFini leads the Cougars with five goals, three assists, 13 points and 21 shots.
Both freshman forward MaryClaire Imig and junior midfielder Macie Begley have two goals, three assists and seven points. Imig is second in shots with 24, while Begley adds 15. Graduate student defender Matea Diekema paces the squad with 26 shots and is tied with Imig for the team lead in shots on goal at 14. Diekema is the two-time reigning OVC Defensive Player of the Year.
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Abby Haskell has seen the bulk of the action in net. She has a 0.90 gaa, 30 saves, a .769 save percentage, a 2-3-3 record and two shutouts. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Samaya Hogg has played in eight games and owns a 2.60 gaa, a 0-4-3 record, with 19 saves, a .594 save percentage and one shared shutout.
A total of 29 Cougars have spent time on the pitch this fall, with Diekema, redshirt senior midfielder Sidney Christopher, senior midfielder Grace Ferguson and senior defender Mary Fetter the only team members to have started every contest.
Head coach Derek Burton has been in charge for 17 years, the entire duration of the Division I era. Prior to joining the Cougars, he was the assistant at MSU during its first two years of existence in 1998 and 1999. He played collegiately at another OVC school, Little Rock.
SIUE leads the all-time series 11-4-1. However, the Eagles won last year's meeting 2-0 in Edwardsville, Ill. Prior to that, the Cougars won six straight, the five most recent games of that stretch were by shutout and a combined score of 17-0.
SIUE defeated the Blue and Gold on Oct. 23, 2022, 3-0, the last time the two faced off in Morehead (and the only time the Eagles were shut out there). MSU has a 1-3-1 record against the Cougars on its home field. The lone victory in Kentucky came in 2018 (1-0). However, two of the five meetings went past regulation, with SIUE winning 2-1 in two overtimes in 2016 and the foes claiming a 1-1 tie in double overtime in 2012. The Eagles have claimed three victories in Edwardsville.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ through the link
https://www.espn.com/watch/player/_/id/fdb4e828-5e59-4ec8-a57f-42303a1b3de2. Live stats are available at the link
https://shorturl.at/feOZ1.
The OVC Tournament will begin on Thursday, Oct. 31, with the third and fourth-place teams hosting competitions between the fifth and eighth-place squads and the sixth and seventh-place sides. The third and fourth-place teams will enter the fray on Sunday, Nov. 3, when the No. 3 seed entertains the No. 6/7 winner and the No. 4 seed hosting the No. 5/8 victor. Play moves to the site of the league regular-season champion for the semifinals (Thursday, Nov. 7) and finals (Sunday, Nov. 10), when the top two seeds will begin play. That site has yet to be determined but will either be in Cookeville, Tenn., St. Charles, Mo., or Little Rock, Ark.
