Boxscore

DES MOINES, Iowa -- It may have seemed scary taking a six-game road losing streak into a city where the University of Evansville women's soccer team had never won.  This Halloween, however, was anything but frightful for the Purple Aces.  Freshman Breanna Beine scored the only goal in the 48th minute, Chaviel Harrison made eight saves, and Evansville is on its way to the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals following Sunday's 1-0 win over fourth seeded Drake in the quarterfinals.

The number five seeded Aces come home for a few days, then head to Omaha, Neb. to play league champion and tournament host Creighton in the semifinals on Friday at 6:00 CDT.  #2 Missouri State and #3 Illinois State open the tournament Friday at 3:30. The tournament championship match is Sunday at Omaha, televised by Fox Sports Midwest at 2:00 CST.

Evansville came into Sunday's match having lost all four previous games at Drake, in 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2-1 in overtime earlier this year.  The Aces had also lost six in a row on the road since an early September win at Middle Tennessee.  But this time, UE took the lead the kept it, getting on the board at 48:44 when Stephanie Thompson sent a long ball into the box that found Beine, who shot it past Drake goalkeeper Kalena Litch for her team-high seventh goal of the year.  Sunday's match was played on the turf of Drake Stadium.  September's match was played on the grass of Cownie Soccer Complex.

"The field made it a little bouncier, but this match basically turned into a battle of wills," said coach Krista McKendree.  "We had one clear chance, and Breanna converted it into a goal just the way we planned it out.  Then it became a grind-it-out type of match, and our players had the determination that we weren't going to give up a goal."

The Aces are back in the semifinals for the first time since 2008, when they won both the MVC regular season and tournament championships, and competed in the NCAA Tournament.