DES MOINES, IOWA - On a night not fit for man or beast, the Drake women's
soccer team waded its way through a rain-drenched Drake Stadium to garner a 1-1
double-overtime tie with North Dakota State on Thursday (Sept. 23).
Originally scheduled to be played at the Cownie Soccer
Complex, the contest was moved to Drake Stadium due to driving rainstorms that
pelted Central Iowa throughout the day.
The tie snapped a two-game winning streak for the Bulldogs
and moved their ledger to 5-2-3, while the Bison saw their record move to
4-2-3.
"The elements tonight made for a very different game than we
were hoping for," Drake head coach Lindsey Horner commented. "We made the first half harder for
ourselves than necessary as we were a bit flat and we couldn't seem to adjust
to the wind and didn't do the little things early enough, but we improved as
the game went on. I'm happy with
our ability to come back from a goal down to equalize."
Brooklyn Dyce broke open a scoreless tie for North Dakota
State in the 66th minute (65:56) nailing home a header amongst a scrum in front
of the box after Abbey Stratton served a corner kick into the box.
The Bison held the advantage until the 77:38 mark when North
Dakota State was whistled for a handball in the box setting up a penalty kick
for freshman Megan Fisher (Ankeny, Iowa/Ankeny). Converting with a kick was
Fisher for her fourth goal of the season.
Neither side was able to capitalize in either of the
overtime sessions and the contest ended in the third tie of the season for each
team.
Drake had several seemingly 1v1 opportunities to score with
sophomore Laura Moklestad (Des Moines, Iowa/Roosevelt) coming up short in the first
half and freshman Generve Charles (Wausau, Wis./Wausau East) missing on two second-half
opportunities.
North Dakota State outshot the Bulldogs in the tilt, 10-7,
led by three shots from Katie Tallas.
Moklestad paced Drake with three shots.
Kalani Bertsch collected a game-high four saves for the
Bison, while freshman Kalena Litch (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) registered three saves for the
Bulldogs.
Drake returns to action on Sunday (Sept. 26) opening
Missouri Valley Conference play hosting Evansville in a 1:00 p.m. game at the
Cownie Soccer Complex.
"This was our final prep game before starting conference,"
said Horner. "If we are able to
retain all that we have improved upon throughout our non-conference season,
Sunday should be a very good game."
