MOREHEAD, Ky. – The path to the fifth straight Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the Morehead State women's soccer team has come down to this: win twice and you are virtually assured a spot. Any other result presents some tricky math for the Eagles to qualify for the field.
The race for the final three spots will come down to four teams, with Morehead State (3-13-0/1-6-0) squarely on the bubble. Five programs have already qualified and only Western Illinois has been eliminated.
The first step in that process begins on Sunday, when the Blue and Gold travel to SIU Edwardsville to face former assistant coach Derek Burton and his Cougars at the Ralph Korte Stadium in Edwardsville, Ill., at 4 p.m. ET. It will be SIUE's Senior Day, where it will recognize seven players.
For the Eagles to make the eight-team field, they will need to do something they have not done this year: win on the road. MSU is 0-7 away from home this fall and has dropped eight straight dating back to the 2024 NCAA Tournament game against Wake Forest.
MSU will need to reverse course drastically. Its last win came on September 21 at home against Western Illinois, a slide that has now reached six games. It is the team's longest overall skid since dropping eight straight from August 19 to September 15, 2018. It also will have to overcome its longest road skid since losing 11 in a row between the 2019 and 2021 seasons. The Eagles' last road victory came on November 3, 2024, against Southern Indiana in the OVC Tournament.
If snapping the current slide has any precedent. It is that eight-game losing streak in 2018 that ended with a 1-0 win over SIUE (albeit at home).
Morehead State coach
Paul Cox knows the challenge his team is facing, and he has made some adjustments in the past few days with that in mind.
"We will be more aggressive in our approach," he said.
He also will tweak the lineup, with sophomore
Claire Cress expected to start in goal.
MSU is coming off a 2-0 home defeat to UT Martin on Thursday. Prior to that, the club fell by identical 4-1 scores to both Little Rock on the road on October 12 and at home to Tennessee Tech on October 9.
Morehead State's struggles have been linked to both sides of the field. It has been outscored 37-8 this fall and 18-2 on the road. The fewest goals MSU scored in a non-Covid season was 10. That record is squarely in focus over the next nine days.
Not all the numbers are that ominous. The Eagles have seen an uptick in their offensive production in the second half of the season. They have registered double-digit shots in nine straight games. Over the first seven contests this fall, they achieved that mark only three times.
In team statistics, MSU is averaging 0.5 goals per game, 11.0 shots per game, 4.38 shots on goal per game, 2.69 corner kicks per game, 8.25 fouls per game, 1.0 offside violations per game, 5.38 saves per game and 0.625 cards per game. Its opponents 2.31 gpg, 15.56 shots per game, 7.44 shots on goal per game, 5.44 ckpg, 8.81 fpg, 1.63 offside flags per game, 3.94 saves per game and 0.81 cpg.
Senior midfielder
Kennedy Baquero has a team-best five points. She has two goals and one assist. Freshman defender
Faith Peper has two goals and four points. Junior midfielder/defender
Hannah Burke has four assists and four points. She now sits tied for ninth on the MSU career assists list. Freshman forward
Jade Walton has one goal, one assist, three points and a team high 35 shots. Graduate assistant midfielder
Karissa Vela is second on the squad in shots with 23.
Cress has played and started 13 games. She has a 3-10 record, with a 2.26 goals-against average, 73 saves, a 0.723 save percentage and three shutouts.
Only junior defender/midfielder
Hannah Carter has played and started all 16 games this season.
After opening the year 1-8-1, SIUE (3-10-3/2-3-2) is 2-2-2 in its last six games. The Cougars defeated Southeast Missouri 1-0 at home on Thursday. Prior to that, it fell 1-0 at Southern Indiana, tied Lindenwood 0-0 at home, beat Western Illinois 3-2 at home, lost at Little Rock 2-0 and tied Tennessee Tech at home 0-0.
The team is 2-5-2 at home this season and is 2-0-2 in its last four games at Korte Stadium.
The Cougars are averaging 0.81 gpg, 8.8 shots per game, 4.31 shots on goal per game, 4.25 ckpg, 9.31 fpg, 1.25 offside flags per game, 5.44 saves per game and 0.81 cpg. Their opponents are averaging 2.13 gpg, 17.06 shots per game, 7.56 shots on goal per game, 6.69 ckpg, 8.31 fpg, 1.69 offside violations per game, 3.56 saves per game and 0.56 cpg.
Senior forward Savannah DeFini has a team-high three goals, plus one assist and seven points. Freshman midfielder Claire Nieroda contributes two goals, two assists and six points. Both DeFini and Nieroda are tied for the lead in shots with 30. Freshman forward Alayna Hauser, freshman forward Amanda Dean and senior midfielder/forward Aleah Minehart each add two goals and four points. Hauser sits third on the club with 17 shots. Only one other player has scored this year, junior defender Audrey Roberts. Freshman midfielder Anna Zichella has a team-best three assists.
Junior goalkeeper Sarah Bozeman has played in all but one game. She has a 3-9-3 record, with a 2.10 gaa, 76 saves, a .710 save percentage and three shutouts.
DeFini, Roberts, Zichella and senior defender Allie Fishering have started all 16 games.
Burton is in his 18th season as the team's head coach. He has a 128-128-45 record. Burton spent the 1998 and 1999 seasons as an assistant at MSU, the first two years of the program.
SIUE leads the all-time series 11-4-2. The teams tied 1-1 last year in Morehead and the Eagles won 2-0 in Edwardsville, Ill., in 2023. The previous six games were won by the Cougars, which shut out MSU 17-0 over the last five contests of that stretch.
SIU Edwardsville is 5-3 all-time against Morehead State at home. Prior to the 2023 meeting, the Cougars won four straight in Edwardsville from 2017-21, with the Eagles' last road victory coming in 2015, when the Blue and Gold won 2-1. MSU also won the 2013 meeting in Illinois 1-0.
Last year, SIUE had an edge of 11-8 in shots and 5-4 in corner kicks. The Cougars also had more fouls 12-6. MSU had more saves 4-3 and the lone offside flag. SIUE was carded twice.
Hedda Ornberg scored for the home side, with assists coming from
Gracen Houck and sophomore forward
BB Bonzheim. Senior midfielder Taryn Moore scored for the visitors, with an assist from Matea Diekema.
Lilly Bailey had four saves for the Eagles and Abby Haskell had three saves for the Cougars.
The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and can be watched through the link:
https://shorturl.at/XhKlt.
Live stats also will be available via the link:
https://shorturl.at/kUzZQ.
MSU will conclude its regular season next Sunday at 2 p.m. If the Eagles qualify for the OVC Tournament, their first game will be on Thursday, Oct. 30 at a site to be determined.
