DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake women's soccer team clinched a top-two seed and a bye to the semifinals in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament after defeating Illinois State by a score of 1-0 on Sunday afternoon from Mediacom Stadium.
Trelyn White scored the game-winner in the 79th minute while the Bulldog defense earned its eighth shutout on home turf this season.
Sunday brought together a battle of the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked teams in the MVC standings with major conference tournament implications on the line and the match on the pitch did not disappoint. The first 45 minutes of action played out fairly even between the two sides and when the halftime horn sounded, the scoreboard displayed a 0-0 draw.
Drake had a couple of opportunities in the first few minutes play off back-to-back corner kicks, but to no avail. One shot was blocked and an
Alanna Pennington header was ultimately saved by Redbird goalkeeper Madi Valenti. Those proved to be the two best scoring chances for either side in the first half with Drake tallying six shots in the period and Illinois State recording four.
The defensive and physical play between the Bulldogs and the Redbirds continued when play resumed for the second half as both teams looked for the first score of the contest. The physicality ultimately led to a total of five yellow cards being produced in the period.
Illinois State and Drake tested each other's goalkeepers in a six-minute stretch first in the 54th minute when
Kate Hopma made a save on an attempt by Grace St. Petrie and then Valenti stepping up again for the Redbirds with a diving stop on a strike by
Angela Gutierrez. As the clock ticked closer and closer to the 90-minute mark the likelihood of a draw only increased until the Bulldogs found a lane.
It didn't happen until the 79th minute, but Drake capitalized on a window of opportunity with
Claire Emmerich leading the charge. The junior midfielder gained possession just before the midfield line and went to work dribbling through a host of Redbird defenders until she reached the top of the attacking box. At the perfect moment Emmerich laid off a touch pass to White who was left unmarked as the Illinois State defender stepped up to end Emmerich's run. White did the rest of the work settling the pass and firing a right-footed attempt into the bottom right corner of the goal.
With just over 10 minutes remaining Drake went into a defensive heavy mode in order to prevent an equalizer as Illinois State pushed forward. The Bulldogs stood tall and stonewalled any threat of an attack from the Redbirds and used their defensive tactics to pick up the pivotal conference win.
"This has been a game our players have been looking forward to since Illinois State ended our season last fall," Drake head coach
Lindsey Horner said. "We knew it would be intense and physical, but I was pleased with how good we started the game. Our focus throughout the 90 minutes to prevent a counter was remarkable and had to frustrate their forwards to be so tightly marked all game.
"We talked all week and again at halftime about a midfielder driving out and the forwards runs in front of the ball so I'm very excited for Trelyn's goal and Claire's assist. Our team is quite happy about having an undefeated regular season at home and thankful for our home crowd."
White picked up her second goal of the season, while Emmerich's assist was her second of the year. In total, Drake ripped off 13 shots in the match compared to seven for Illinois State and the Bulldogs had four shots on target with the Redbirds mustering just one.
Drake will close out its regular season on Thursday, Nov. 5 on the road at in-state rival UNI. Kickoff with the Panthers is scheduled for 1 p.m. from Cedar Falls. Drake can clinch the No. 1 seed and back-to-back regular season conference championships with a win at UNI and either a loss or draw by Southern Illinois against Indiana State.
