DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University women's soccer team lost its Thursday, Sept. 13 night match to South Dakota by a score of 1-0 at the Cownie Soccer Complex.
Maddison Sullivan scored in the 70
th minute for South Dakota (4-2-2), which claimed just its second all-time victory over Drake (2-6-0). In the box, Sullivan took a header pass from Joana Zanin who had gathered in a deep ball from Abby Ostrem and flicked her shot past the Bulldogs' goalkeeper,
Kelsie Stone (Hoffman Estates, Ill.) for the game winner.
Drake, which outshot South Dakota, 15-4, had several chances for the game's first goal but couldn't land the elusive score. In the 31
st minute, Drake had shots by
Cassie Rohan (Palatine, Ill.) blocked and a try by Allison Walls (Kansas City, Mo.) go wide. With under five minutes left in the period,
Annie Schmitz (St. Louis, Mo.) had her initial shot saved and off the deflection
Olivia Bruce (Lakeville, Minn.) had a quality shot that was also saved.
"Unfortunately, the score didn't reflect our effort tonight," said head coach
Lindsey Horner. "I felt we had a lot of quality chances created from our wide play in the first half. South Dakota did a good job of putting pressure on our flank players in the second half opening up central areas for us to again create several dangerous moments. I was pleased with our ability to link with our forwards and get in the final third. We were all over them to start the second half, but just couldn't find that elusive goal."
Right out of halftime, Drake was aggressive with shots by
Shelley Lyjak (Bartlett, Ill.) and Walls but both went wide. Midway through the period, Drake had three shots in the span of two minutes, but attempts by
Rebecca Corbett (Urbandale, Iowa),
Sam Nosler (Westfield, Ind.) and Walls failed.
After South Dakota scored, Drake pushed for the equalizer but shots by
Vanessa Kavan (Lincoln, Neb.), Nosler and Hallie Reznik (Cumming, Iowa) were all saved by Coyotes keeper, Parker Rytz. Rytz finished with five saves.
"These are the type of games that you have to put away when you have the momentum," Horner said. "I am convinced we are making progress and will get on the flip side of the results in the near future if we keep hungry and getting better at each opportunity."
Following Thursday's game, Drake welcomes Western Illinois Sunday to Cownie. First kick with the Coyotes is set for 1 p.m. and the game will be shown on ESPN+.