Women’s soccer working overtime

Neal Hogden, Head Sports Editor

The UW Oshkosh women’s soccer team went 1-1-1 over the past week, beating Ripon College by a score of 4-3 in their lone win of the week.

Against Ripon on Sept. 18, UWO got goals from junior Mallory Knight, senior Ashley Baalke and sophomores Mariah Matthews and Mackenzie Bennett to take a 4-3 victory.

Goalkeeper Erin Toomey saved three out of six shots to get the win for the Titans.

The game got off to a hot start as each team scored two goals in the first 13 minutes of the match.

Before halftime, Matthews scored her first goal of the season to put UWO up 3-2. In the 42nd minute, Ripon got a tying goal from Brianna Schnell to knot the game up at three.

The only goal scored in the second half of play was from Knight in the 64th minute, which proved to be the deciding goal as the Titans went on to win 4-3.

On Saturday, UWO tied in a double-overtime decision with Carthage College.

After a back-and-forth first half, Carthage got on the board first with a goal in the 79th minute. With time winding down in the game, junior Addie Schmitz drove home her second goal of the season to tie the score at one.

Over the first ten and a half minutes of sudden-death overtime, Carthage got off two shots but senior Madelyn Runyan saved both opportunities.

UWO went on the offensive during the second period of overtime, getting off a flurry of shots against the Lady Red defense. Carthage goalkeeper Sara Lieffrig saved two Titan strikes while the other seven were off the mark.

Senior goalkeeper Madelyn Runyan said she was proud of the way her team played to a tie during the extra periods.

“We are a team that wants to get the results but we worked extremely hard during the game,” Runyan said. “I was not disappointed with the effort my team put in. It is difficult to come away with only a 1-1 score after playing 120 minutes of soccer, but we can always learn from previous games to help us in the future.”

Head coach Erin Coppernoll said despite the tie, the team played their best game of the season against Carthage.

“I thought we played hard,” Coppernoll said. “We played well. We were all over them. I do feel like we’re the better team, so yes there’s a little feeling like we should have gotten it done. I was pleased because that game, we probably played our best overall in all positions. It was nice to see 110 minutes of that.”

UWO lost their next contest to Illinois Wesleyan University by a score of 0-2.

UWO was under duress early as Illinois Wesleyan put five shots on goal in the first 15 minutes of the game.

Baalke, Schmitz and junior Delaney Karl all recorded shots on goal, but Wesleyan goalkeeper Maria Fields was stout in goal as she recorded a shutout against UWO.

Coppernoll said the team was tired from the overtime game the night before but was proud of the way it battled.

“We were tired, we were exhausted,” Coppernoll said. “We played hard against Illinois Wesleyan, but we didn’t play well. I’m sure that’s due to heavy legs, playing late on a Sunday night; we never do that. I was pleased with the effort, but we didn’t tactically do what we needed to do.”

UWO faced off against St. Norbert College on Wednesday. Stats and recaps of the game can be viewed at uwoshkoshtitans.com.

The Titans fell 2-1 in their home game against St. Norbert College on Sept. 25th. Scoring for the Titans was sophomore Alexia Poulos.