WKU Falls 1-0 in Season Opener at Murray State

Friday, August 17

Murray, Ky.

3 P.M. CT

Western Kentucky University

0-1

Murray State

1-0

WKU

Murray State

8/17/2018 5:42:00 PM | Women's Soccer

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

MURRAY, Ky. – WKU put together a strong second half and saw action from all seven of its freshmen in the 2018 regular season opener at Murray State on Friday afternoon, falling 1-0 against the Racers after an early first-half goal.

Junior Chandler Backes led the way for the WKU attack, putting three of her four shots on goal on the afternoon, and freshmen Ambere Barnett and Olivia Stanley each put at least one try on goal as well. Murray State outshot the Lady Toppers 18-9, but held only a slim 7-6 advantage in shots on goal across the 90 minutes.

Barnett joined fellow freshmen Lyric Schmidt and Chelsea Moore in the starting lineup in their regular season debut, with all three seeing at least 51 minutes of playing time on Friday.

Between the pipes, Anne-Marie Ulliac drew the start for the Lady Toppers, but freshman Bailee Witt came on in the eighth minute for the remainder of the match. Despite giving up the early goal, Witt recovered and kept a clean sheet over the final 80 minutes with six saves in her first official collegiate match.

For Murray State, Miyah Watford and goalscorer Abby Jones combined for nine of the team's 18 shots, and Alex Steigerwald kept a clean sheet with six saves while playing the full 90 minutes.

Murray State struck first on the afternoon, three minutes after Witt was brought on to replace Ulliac. Jones found the back of the net for the Racers off the feed from Kayla Travis after Witt got a hand on the ball but could not parry it away as the Racers took an early 1-0 lead.

In the 19th minute, WKU nearly pulled level on back-to-back shots from Backes and Barnett. Both were able to find enough space to put a shot on frame, but Steigerwald was there to stop both chances and end the dangerous Lady Topper threat.

Forced into action in her first collegiate match, Witt made a pair of saves just over two minutes apart midway through the half to maintain the one-goal deficit. The Plainfield, Ill., native stonewalled both Jones and Watford to keep WKU within striking distance as the two sides headed into the locker room with Murray State still holding a 1-0 advantage.

Backes came out firing in the second half, testing Steigerwald less than three minutes into the period with a strong shot on goal, but the Racers' goalkeeper again came up with the stop to maintain her shutout. In the 53rd minute, Witt turned in a trio of saves for the Lady Toppers in a two-minute span, showing off her athleticism to fend off the powerful Murray State attack.

Stanley nearly converted for WKU at the 57:17 mark as WKU continued to search for the equalizer. One of two Lady Topper freshmen from Kentucky, Stanley put power on the strike but could not quite find the back of the net.

Over the final 10 minutes of the match, both Backes and Stanley had tries that went wide and were blocked, respectively, as the Lady Toppers made a final push to level the match. Murray State's back line was able to hold strong down the stretch, however, as WKU dropped the hotly-contested 1-0 decision to begin their 2018 campaign.

WKU will be back in action on Sunday evening at 6 p.m. as the Lady Toppers head south to battle Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. The Rebels are receiving votes in the first United Soccer Coaches poll of the season and return the SEC's leading scorer from 2017 in CeCe Kizer. WKU and Ole Miss have squared off on the pitch two times in program history, with WKU holding a 1-0-1 lead in the series; in the most recent meeting, the two sides battled to a scoreless draw on Aug. 27, 2010, in Oxford.