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INDIANAPOLIS - Despite falling behind by a goal late in the first half, the IUPUI women's soccer team came off the mat with two unanswered goals to claim a 2-1 win over SIU Edwardsville at Carroll Stadium on Friday (Aug. 29) night.

Sophomores Tori Minnich and Alyssa Fox scored goals and rookie goalie Catherine Schmidt made six saves in 90 minutes work for her first collegiate victory.

"I was very proud of the girls on the way they stepped out today," IUPUI Head Coach Chris Johnson said. "We came out today and I think we've seen progress in every game so far and this was just a little more continuation of what we've been working on. Offensively we clicked a little better and started to move the ball around.

"We could've had a couple of goals in the first five minutes of the game."

The Jaguars just missed chances in the 17th and 27th minutes before finally denting the net in the 42nd minute. Freshman Krissy Kirkhoff had a shot ring off the left post in the 11th minute and classmate Hayley Shelton put a quality strike on frame, testing SIUE goalie Jennifer Pelley and creating a corner kick.

Emily Grahl was equally dangerous for the Cougars in the attacking third, wreaking havoc on the Jaguars' defenders on a number of occasions.

However, SIUE (1-1) scored the game's first goal in the 36th minute when Cassidy Sherman shouldered a shot past Schmidt, after the IUPUI goalkeeper initially appeared to punch the ball out on a corner kick. SIUE's Michelle Auer bent her service into harm's way before Schmidt got her right hand on the ball. However, the redirect hit off Sherman as she was crashing the net, leading to the game's first goal.

It was Schmidt's distribution that led to IUPUI (1-1-1) knotting the match in the 42nd minute as she sent a ball down the middle of the field to junior midfielder Grace Perkowitz, who flicked it on to Tori Minnich. Minnich took the lead pass and sprinted in behind the SIUE defenders before rolling a shot from the top of the 18 past Pelley.

Fox put the Jags ahead to stay in the 48th minute, thanks to a gorgeous ball from sophomore Meghan Day. With Kirkhoff drawing attention with a near post run, Fox made her run to the middle where Day hit her in stride from the left flank. From there, Fox angled a shot just inside the right post for her third career score and first career game-winner.

"We've worked on a lot of different flow of plays and just different styles of coming out of the back," Day said. "Coach has talked a lot about giving direction for different players. I heard people saying play Alyssa, so I looked up and I just saw that it was an open pass."

Despite being outshot 16-13 for the game, IUPUI definitely had the better run of play in the second half, largely based on the hosts lengthy bench. Johnson used 18 different field players and had two others on the sidelines who would normally be in the rotation.

"We do want to help our players by not playing them 90 minutes a game every time we step on the field," Johnson said. "We have a lot of girls who are playing 45 and 55 minutes a game and I think when we get to the conference season, it's going to pay dividends for us down the road."

Kirkhoff led all players with seven shots while Grahl and Sherman had four each for the Cougars.

IUPUI will cap the two-game weekend on Sunday when the Jaguars face UIC at Flames Field at 5:00 p.m. Eastern.