NORMAL, Ill. – No.7 seed Illinois State (6-9-4, 3-4-3 MVC) battles No.3 seed UIC (7-9-2, 6-2-2 MVC) Sunday for a ticket to the 2024 MVC Tournament Semi-final. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. at Flames Field in Chicago.
ROUND 1 RECAP
Illinois State earned a 1-0 win over UNI Thursday in a Round 1 matchup that was the second meeting between the two teams over four days. Illinois State and UNI settled for a 1-1 draw at Adelaide Street Field to close the regular season.
Erika Wells' goal in the 60th minute marked the game winner for Illinois State and her first-career goal. Madi Valenti made five saves in her fifth shutout of the 2024 campaign. It marked the first shutout for Illinois State at the MVC Tournament since a 1-0 win over Missouri State in 2018.
The Redbirds became the first seven-seed to win a game at the MVC Tournament as seven seeds were 0-3 heading into this year's championship. It is also the first win for the program as a lower seed at the MVC Tournament. Illinois State was 0-8-2 all-time as a lower seed at the Valley Tournament heading into the game.
MVC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The Redbirds 7 MVC Tournament titles all-time are tied for the most in Valley history (Evansville) as the program goes for its first since 2016. Illinois State's 20 All-time MVC Tournament wins are now tied for second in conference history after the victory Thursday. (Evansville, 21; Creighton, 20).
FIRST CAREER GOALS
With Wells' game-winner Thursday she became the 8th Redbird to net their first-career goal this year.
A Redbird scored their first career goal in four consecutive games from Oct. 3 to Oct. 17. Chloe Cline (8.15), Sammi Cenek (8.15), Eiley Henderson (10.3), Eve Gricius (10.3), Aniya Seymore (10.6), Abby Hall (10.13) and Kennedy Herman (10.17) have also scored their first career goal this season.
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