St. Paul, Minn. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse soccer team rallied for a 2-2 double overtime tie at the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) Sunday afternoon. The Eagles and Tommies both move to 1-0-1 on the season.
"Our team battled tough against a very good St. Thomas side," said UWL head coach
Jason Murphy. "Two straight games we have come out on the front foot and taken a lead. Today, we had to battle back from 2-1 down and our players showed resilience and a ton of heart. It was a grea team effort." The Eagles opened their season with a 4-0 win at the University of Dubuque (Iowa) September 1.
UWL took a 1-0 lead at 7:35 as
Maddie Granos scored assisted by
Alex Cording. "
Maddie Granos played great and scored a great goal for us," said Murphy. St. Thomas (Minn.) forced a 1-1 tie at halftime with Lauren Wikstrom scoring at 26:13 assisted by Hailey Zweber. The Tommies took a 2-1 lead at 52:56 as Brie Bourdage scored with Mallory DeBoom and Elizabeth Muench recording assists.
Kaitlyn Villars
The Eagles came back to force a 2-2 tie with
Kaitlyn Villars scoring at 76:25 assisted by
Margaret Harings. "First year
Kaitlyn Villars scored the late goal to tie the match," added Murphy. "She had great movement to get free and showed composure on the finish. It was great to see her play well in a tough environment early."
UWL finished with 10 shots in the game, including five in each half. St. Thomas (Minn.) recorded 18 shots, including eight in the first half, seven in the second half and three in the first overtime.
Kennedy Brault recorded seven saves for UWL with Olivia Elvidge finishing with three.
"Juniors
Maya Schmitt and
Megan Carroll kept us organized in back and played their hearts out," said Murphy. "They were able to stop the St. Thomas attack throughout the day."
Villars led the Eagles with three shots while Granos had two. Both players had two shots on goal. Muench led the Tommies with four shots with three coming on goal.
UWL returns to action Thursday, September 7 hosting Carthage College (Wis.) at 5 p.m. in the Eagles' home opener. The game will be played on UWL's new artificial turf on campus.
