BROOKINGS, S.D. - The IUPUI women's soccer team left Indianapolis with a puncher's chance of making the four-team Summit League Tournament, heading into a gauntlet of matches against the league's top two teams. Facing two matches separated by 44 hours and nearly 200 miles, the Jags took care of the first leg of the trip by upsetting league leader South Dakota State, 2-1, on Friday night (Oct. 28).
Despite being outshot 26-5 overall and 11-4 on target, IUPUI (9-6-3, 3-2-2 Summit) got a goal in each half past a pair of SDSU (10-7-1, 5-3 Summit) goalies to vault up the league standings heading into Sunday. Senior
Catherine Raster tallied the Jaguars' first goal before
Hayley Shelton tallied the game-winner in the 65th minute.
"We just don't win up here very often," IUPUI Head Coach
Chris Johnson said. "We've had chances, but it just hasn't happened.
"Hayley Shelton was our woman of the match. The difference between us winning and losing was Hayley's attitude and effort out there tonight."
South Dakota State struck first when Tori Poole tallied in the 23rd minute, beating junior goalie
Catherine Schmidt with a shot inside the near post. However, the Jags answered 27 seconds later when Raster deposited her eighth goal of the year, tying her with
Tori Minnich for the team lead.
Sophomore
Maryna Clark set up the score with her school record ninth assist of the season. Raster was able to redirect a ball from Clark past SDSU starter Nicole Inskeep to get the Jags even.
The score remained even until Shelton scored her fourth goal of the year in the 65th minute. Raster rolled a ball across the SDSU endline and Shelton was able to poke a shot past backup goalie Maggie Smither, in amongst a scrum of defenders. Smither had allowed just two goals all year in nearly 700 minutes coming into Friday's match.
"Braegan (Lyon) played a great ball to (Raster) and she beat her man and tapped it across the goal face and I slid to tap it in," Shelton said. "It was a surreal moment."
Defensively, IUPUI faced an onslaught over the final 20-plus minutes, but was able to essentially kill the game. Johnson credited Shelton's sliding tackle on SDSU's Nicole Hatcher in the final minute to help seal the win.
"It looked like they would have a quality chance, but Hayley went in hard on the girl, got the ball and shut it down," Johnson said.
In goal, Schmidt made a season-high 10 saves, eight of which came after halftime.
"They were firing from all different angles and Cat made, what I thought, were three really good saves to keep us in the game," Johnson said. "She did a good job back there and I thought our backs did a good job as well."
The win kept the Jags in the hunt for the postseason, but a win at North Dakota State is a necessity on the final day of the regular season.
"Tonight's win was crucial to keep us in contention for the conference tournament," Raster said. "We knew we had to come out of there with a win and we expected nothing else. I'm so proud of this team. But we aren't done yet."
"Our seniors deserved this one and I'm so happy we can keep our conference tournament hopes alive," Shelton said.
IUPUI will kickoff with NDSU at 2:00 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. Links to live stats and live video are available on IUPUIJags.com.
