MARTIN, Tenn. - Southeast Missouri Women's Soccer (2-10-3, 2-4-3 OVC) clinched the seventh seed in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament Sunday afternoon with a 2-0 victory over UT Martin (4-10-3, 3-6-0 OVC) behind a fierce offensive attack.
SEMO notched a season high 22 shots on the day with six of them being on goal. UT Martin recorded 12 shots with three on target.
Cayla Koerner,
Zoe Houston, and
Alayna Jakul led the Redhawks with four shots apiece.
Elizabeth Rater and Houston paced SEMO with two SOG's.
Sophia Elfrink had an amazing day with three saves against 12 shots faced.
Houston scored the first goal of the contest to give SEMO the early 1-0 lead in the first half. Off of a pass from Koerner,
Alli Saviano slotted it to Houston, who put the ball to the top left of the net to score in the 17th minute of the game.
The Redhawks dominated the first half box with 14 first half shots compared to UT Martin's 4. Out of those 14 shots three shots were on goal.
Coming out of halftime
Emily Baker and Koerner both fired off a shot within the first 11 minutes of the second half.
Twenty-one seconds later the Redhawks were in the corner. In the corner,
Justi Nelson kicked a perfect ball into the box right to the head of Rater to score SEMO's second goal of the contest.
Rater's goal was her second on the season and would prove to be the last goal of the game, giving SEMO the 2-0 victory to advance to postseason play.
Joining Elfrink,
Sophie Shrum,
Kristin Anderson, Jakul, and Rater played the full 90 minutes.
The #7 Redhawks will play #6 Eastern Illinois in the first round of the OVC tournament. The game will be held at #3 Lindenwood in St. Charles Mo. on Oct. 31. First kick is slated for 7 p.m., CT.