NORMAL, Ill. – A second-half Redbird surge was hard to combat for the University of Evansville women's soccer team on Sunday afternoon as host Illinois State scored twice after the break to take the lead and never looked back, earning a 2-1 victory over the Purple Aces in the Missouri Valley Conference championship match at Adelaide Street Field.
"I thought the girls battled hard today," UE head coach Krista McKendree said. "We wanted to put ourselves in a position to compete for the championship today, and I thought they did that. They got the early goal, but Illinois State is a very good team and they took advantage of two of their opportunities."
The loss brings the season to an end for the Aces, who were playing in their third consecutive MVC final. UE ends the year with a 4-12-3 overall record. Meanwhile, the Redbirds, who are now on a conference-record 14-match unbeaten run, improved to 14-5-2 and earned the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The Redbirds, who were also forced to come from behind to claim the MVC regular season title over the Aces, came out strong in the contest, peppering the Aces goal with 10 shots in the opening 45 minutes. However, ISU only put three shots on target in the half and MVC Goalkeeper of the Year Whitney Biggs was up to the task, making three saves.
Late in the half, Bronwyn Boswell put the Aces ahead after her strike partner Montana Portenier blazed up the right flank, beating her defender twice before picking out Boswell near the penalty spot. From there, Boswell turned and blasted a shot past ISU goalkeeper Haley Smith to give UE the lead.
The goal was the 22
nd of Boswell's UE career, and she'll leave Evansville tied with Jessica Schwartz as the program's seventh-best goal-scorer in history.
Following the half, ISU came out on the front foot. The Redbirds would draw a foul outside the 18-yard box in the 53
rd minute, and the ensuing free kick from Kiley Czerwinski found the head of Brooke Ksiazek, who sent it back across the face of goal to Paige Jarsombeck to tie up the match.
Nine minutes later, another ball into the box, this time from Abby Basler found Brianne Richards, who played it to Lauren Koehl for the eventual match-winner. Koehl, who was the MVC Player of the Year, now has 16 goals on the season.
"We've had a very good group this season," McKendree said. "Our seniors have helped get us to where we are today. We're very appreciative of them and helping lead the program to the title game in three of their four years. That's a very high mark. Hopefully they've something behind that we can build on."
The title for Illinois State marked the seventh in the program's history, tying with UE for the most in the history of MVC. Meanwhile, it marked a fifth runner-up finish for the Aces.
NOTES: The match marked UE's 12
th trip to a conference final … It was also a rematch of the 2014 final, which was won 2-1 in Normal as well … The host has won the MVC tournament crown in three consecutive seasons … UE is now 8-16-3 all-time against the Redbirds, and 25-30-10 all-time against schools from the state of Illinois … UE is 1-2-0 on Nov. 6.
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