NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State soccer team drew to Missouri State, 1-1, Sunday afternoon at Adelaide Street Field. With the tie, the Redbirds are now 7-5-2 on the season and 1-0-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference, while the Bears are 3-7-3 and 0-2-1 in the MVC.
In the first half ISU came out strong, as they challenged Missouri State's Evan Stamp in the first minute of play. Freshman Mikayla Unger played a through ball to senior Lauren Koehl, as Koehl ripped a shot off that just skipped the frame and went wide.
Junior Kelli Zickert put the Redbirds on the scoreboard in the 18th minute, as she scored off a through ball from sophomore Megan Kozlow making the score 1-0.
The difference in the match came in the 28th minute when Missouri State's Mary Disidore scored the equalizer, as she cut two ISU defenders and ripped the ball on the ground to the right corner.
Freshman Haley Smith made two incredible back-to-back saves in the 35th minutes to keep the score even. Both squads combined 22 shots in the first half with Illinois State holding a 16-6 advance.
Overall, Redbirds finished with a 35-8 advantage in shots, with 11 on goal, while forcing MSU's Stamp to 10 saves. ISU tallied seven corner kicks compared to MSU's four. Smith grabbed two saves between the pipes.
"Very disappointing match today, in term of how we played," head coach Eric Golz said. "I thought that we were inefficient in finishing some of the opportunities we created. I also thought we were very sloppy in defense. It's disappointing because it was a critical league match at home and we dropped a point that we never should have dropped. Now we have to recover and improve as we have the next two matches on the road against quality opponents."
The Redbirds are back in action Wednesday when they travel to Chicago to face off against Missouri Valley foe Loyola at Loyola Soccer Park. Kick off set for 7 p.m. Â
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