EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville women's soccer team scored two first-half goals Thursday night, and reserve forward Abbi Lenk iced the match with her first career goal in the 82nd minute to give UE a 3-1 victory over visiting Illinois State on "Senior Night" at Arad McCutchan Stadium in Evansville.
Evansville jumped to an almost immediate lead, as in the fourth minute, junior defender Rachel Rosborough delivered a perfect cross to a streaking Hailey Autenrieb down the middle of the field, and she buried a shot into the lower-right 90 for her third goal of the season.
Illinois State would rebound to control possession, and fire five shots, including four on target, over the next 20 minutes, but UE senior goalkeeper Georgia Katsonouri turned away all four to keep UE up 1-0. Then, senior midfielder Monique Landrum came on, and helped turn the tide, as just 12 minutes into her first-half shift, Landrum trapped down a nifty pass from fifth-year forward Emily Ormson and beat the Illinois State keeper to the far post for her second goal of the year in the 36th minute to give UE a 2-0 cushion at halftime.
Illinois State would rebound coming out of the halftime locker room to score a goal by Hillary Griffin in the 49th minute to trim the UE lead to 2-1. But, this time, UE, which had been snake-bitten in Missouri Valley Conference play in the final 12 minutes of play, stood tall and built on the lead down the stretch.
It began with a Katsonouri full-extension save in the 79th minute of a low shot that was headed to the corner. Then, just over two minutes later, Lenk, who played just four minutes in the match, forced a loose ball in the penalty box on a back-pass to the goalkeeper, and laced a shot from a tough angle through the goalkeeper's out-stretched hands and into the back of the net for her first collegiate goal.
"This win is a real credit to our senior class," said UE head coach Chris Pfau. "I thought all year long, we have played some really good soccer, but it seemed like every match, we just ran into some unfortunate things here and there and didn't get the results that we wanted. But, our seniors have really stuck together, and continued to play hard, and they drove this team to the win tonight, and that really shows the character of that senior class."
Evansville honored eight seniors prior to tonight's match, including Ormson and fellow fifth-year members Reilly Paterson and Abby Phelps, as well as seniors Landrum, Kristen Harvey, Emilie Hill, Isabel Lynch and Sophia Rodil. While Ormson, Paterson, Phelps, Harvey and Hill are graduating, the Purple Aces could return 20 players who saw action this fall next season.
