Box Score
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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI women's soccer team claimed a hard fought draw against in-state foe Evansville on Friday night (Sept. 12) at Carroll Stadium as the two teams played to a scoreless tie at Michael A. Carroll Stadium. Freshman Catherine Schmidt made four saves in 65 minutes to earn the decision and teamed with sophomore Nicole Kulovitz to gain the team's second shutout of the season. 

"I was very proud of our girls in how they played defensively," IUPUI Head Coach Chris Johnson said. "It's the first shutout since the Valpo game. It seems the last three or four games we've had some mental lapses with our marking or just our challenges sometimes were reckless and tonight I thought our girls did a great job for the entire 110 minutes. I couldn't be more proud of them."

"It's really good for the team," Schmidt said of the shutout after having missed the past three games to injury. "It's definitely a really good thing to have a shutout."

The game was played largely between the 18s as both back lines proved to be highly impenetrable throughout the match. When either side found a crease, the goalies made quick work of the ensuing shot attempts on every occasions.

IUPUI (2-4-2) got some quality chances from both Krissy Kirkhoff and Tori Minnich in the first half, but both were unable to solve UE goalkeeper Simone Busby. In the 17th minute, Grace Perkowitz played Minnich in behind the Evansville (4-3-1) defense, but a retreating defender was able to deter the shot attempt. In the 25th minute, Minnich did a great job of turning on her defender just outside the six-yard box and put a shot on frame that Busby knocked down before it was cleared away by a defender.

"I really felt we had the better chances in the first half of the game," Johnson said. "Tori had some really close opportunities in both halves and Krissy had some nice shots in both halves too."

Freshman Val Ostrowski just missed setting up a Minnich opportunity in the 67th minute and Perkowitz had a quality header moments later that Busby easily stopped.

Evansville's best scoring chances came in overtime, including a corner kick in the 107th minute that got a little hairy for the Jaguars defensively. Nicki Baham drove a ball into danger and the Jaguars' back line had trouble clearing the ball, allowing a number of attackers to get touches before it was eventually sent away. Evansville opened the second overtime with three shot attempts, two of which were saved by Schmidt.

Schmidt lowered her goals against average to 0.91 and moved her record to 1-0-2 on the season. Kulovitz dropped her GAA to 1.55 in six starts. Kirkhoff, The Summit League leader in shot attempts, fired a game-high five attempts on Friday, as did Evansville's Baham. Minnich had a game-high three shots on target as Busby finished with eight saves for UE.

IUPUI will cap the weekend at Butler on Sunday (Sept. 14) with a 1:00 p.m. kickoff from the Butler Bowl.