RUSTON, La. – Louisiana Tech women's soccer picked up their fifth point in the Conference USA standings with a 1-1 draw against FIU Sunday afternoon at The Mack in Ruston.
LA Tech (3-7-3, 1-2-2 C-USA), scored its earliest goal of the season in the 12' off a corner kick from
Kalli Matlock that curled into the top left corner of the net just over the outstretched hands of FIU's goalkeeper, Ithaisa Vinoly.
It was the sixth match this season where the Techsters struck first. Tech held on to the 1-0 lead into halftime.
Early in the second, FIU (2-5-3, 0-2-3 C-USA) found the equalizer off their own corner kick opportunity from Noemi Paquin to Kim Scheider, who beat
Sydnee Korchak in the upper part of the net.
Korchak finished the day with six more saves to give her 49 on the year. It was Korchak's sixth match this season allowing only one goal or fewer.
Tech had two good chances to retake the lead with an
Emma Jones' shot that was punched over the net by Maaike van Klink for one of her three saves, and an attempt from
Maci Geltmeier, who hit the crossbar from just inside the box in the 58'.
In the final minutes,
Josie Studer found Jones all alone and running free, but the flag was raised, calling Jones for offsides. Neither team threatened again ending the match in a 1-1 draw.
FIU now sits with three points in the Conference USA standings, in ninth place. Tech holds on to a tie for sixth with UTSA, who visits Ruston on Thursday.
The Panthers held a slight advantage in shots (12-9) and a 7-4 advantage in shots on goal. FIU had five corners to Tech's five.
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Steve Voltz…
"At the end of the day, it is another point in the standings for us. We would have loved more and given ourselves chances for more, but this was a very hard-fought, even match today. Both teams gave everything they had.
It comes down to what it usually does, set pieces. College soccer is often decided on set pieces. We were good on one today. They were good on one. We still have to learn to capitalize on those winning moments.
We will have another big one next Thursday between two teams fighting for spots in the conference tournament. UTSA will be a completely different type of opponent, so we will take care of our bodies and then prepare for them this Thursday"
NOTABLES
• LA Tech now leads the all-time series 4-2-2 and 2-1-1 in matches played in Ruston.
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Kalli Matlock scored her second goal of the season and fourth of her career.
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Sophie Fijneman eclipsed 4,000 career minutes played in the match.
• Fijneman played the full 90 minutes again, the 11th time in 13 matches. She has played all but 33 minutes this season.
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Laura Ogando and
Josie Studer also played the full 90. Ogando's ninth time of the season, Studer's second time in four matches.
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Josie Studer started in her 50th career match.
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Carmen Suarez was booked with a Yellow Card.
UP NEXT
LA Tech will wrap up a three-game Conference USA home stand this Thursday, Oct. 6, at 7 p.m. at The Mack against UTSA.
Special promotions for Thursday's match will be the annual Pink Game. For more information, check out the
2022 Promotional Schedule. The game can be seen on CUSATV.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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