By: Down a goal late in the match, defender Rebecca Morris came forward and put away her first career goal to give IC a tie in a non-conference tune-up.
Box Score
GREENVILLE, Ill. – The Illinois College women's soccer team stepped away from Midwest Conference play on Wednesday night for a match with Greenville College. After going down a goal early in the second half, the Lady Blues came back to tie the match on the strength of a
Rebecca Morris goal, giving IC its first draw of the season. Illinois College will now resume conference play with a record of 5-3-1.
Early in the match, the Lady Blues had
Samantha Vacek to thank for remaining tied with Greenville. The sophomore keeper made an initial save and then fought through a scrum on the goal line to corral a second shot from the Panthers to keep the match scoreless with less than four minutes gone. Greenville had another good chance in the 28th minute, but Vacek was there again. At the half, the Panthers had outshot IC by an 8-1 margin, but Vacek had six saves and the match was 0-0 through 45 minutes.
Greenville took the lead with just over five minutes gone in the second half. Whitney Warner tracked down a ball on the right side of the 18-yard box just before it would have rolled out of play. Her low cross was perfectly timed to find the foot of a cutting Breanna Thomas and her curling effort looped over Vacek at the near post for a 1-0 advantage.
The good news for Illinois College was that there was still nearly 40 minutes left to find the tying goal and the Lady Blues needed almost all of it.
Kelsey Ziegemeier had the first chance for IC to tie it, but she couldn't generate enough power on her shot to beat Greenville keeper Lourdes Machado in the 58th minute. On another occasion, the Lady Blues had numbers forward but
Mackenzie Bedgood pushed her effort wide of the left post.
Needing a spark, Illinois College turned to senior
Rebecca Morris. Usually lining up as a central defender, Morris moved up to forward late in the match and headed home a corner kick from
Ally Kjellander with 10 minutes to play for her first career goal, tying the match at 1-1.
In overtime, Vacek turned aside one more Greenville shot to preserve the tie. She ended with 10 for the match in 110 minutes of action between the posts.
Illinois College jumps back into conference play on Oct. 1 with a 3:30 p.m. road match at Grinnell College. The Lady Blues will conclude the weekend with another road match on Oct. 2, facing Dominican University (IL) in a 12 p.m. match in suburban Chicago.
