As the higher seed, Drake will host No. 2 Southern Illinois in the MVC Championship match at Mediacom Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.
Bulldogs Blank Racers 1-0, Will Host MVC Championship
DES MOINES, Iowa – Trelyn White scored minutes after coming off the bench late in the first half, and two Drake goalkeepers shared the shutout as top-seeded Drake beat No. 5 seed Murray State 1-0 Thursday night in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals at Mediacom Stadium. Drake earned the No. 1 seed for the MVC Tournament for the second year in a row after finishing the regular season unbeaten in league play with a record of 7-0-2, and improved to 13-3-3 with the win. The loss ended Murray State’s best stretch of the season, a run in which the Racers had not lost in eight matches, the longest run of its season, and had conceded five goals across it.
Murray State goalkeeper Isa De Santos Gomez kept the Bulldogs off the board for most of the first half, saving shots from Angela Gutierrez in the 26th minute and Claire Emmerich in the 27th. Drake starting goalkeeper Addie Ford answered with saves on both of Addison Howell’s shots on target, in the 18th and 36th minutes. Emmerich came close again in the 35th minute when her shot hit the left post. White entered the match in the 35th minute and needed less than nine minutes to make an impact, scoring at 43:35 on her only shot of the night, assisted by Gutierrez and Kylie Binger.
Drake sent Kate Hopma into goal at halftime, the same change the Bulldogs made in their regular-season title clincher, when Hopma came up with a huge save in the 85th minute to keep the clean sheet. Hopma’s only save Thursday came in the 64th minute, when she stopped a shot from Gabriel Ramdeen headed for the bottom right corner. Murray State outshot Drake 6-5 in the second half, but none of the other Racer attempts after the break were on target. De Santos Gomez kept it a one-goal game, finishing with four saves, including a 70th-minute stop on Gutierrez and an 81st-minute save on Alexa Aylward.
Overall, Drake outshot Murray State 11-9 and had a 5-3 edge in shots on goal, while the Racers held a 2-1 advantage in corner kicks in front of 482 fans. The win was some payback for Drake, since the teams’ only previous MVC Tournament meeting saw the Racers winning 1-0 in the first round of the 2022 tournament. Drake also stayed unbeaten against Murray State in Des Moines, where it had a record of 1-0-2 all-time before tonight.
Salukis Edge Illinois State 1-0, Advance to MVC Championship
CARBONDALE, Ill. – Freshman Victoria Hassan scored in the 64th minute and goalkeeper Kaylynn Miller made five saves as No. 2 seed Southern Illinois beat No. 3 Illinois State 1-0 Thursday in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinals at Lew Hartzog Track & Field Complex. The Salukis (14-4-0) finished the season series with two wins over the Redbirds, after they won 1-0 on the road on Oct. 10 in Normal, Ill.
The two teams went scoreless through the first half, and each goalkeeper made two saves before the break. Illinois State’s best early chance came in the 26th minute, when Miller stopped a shot from Rylann Law headed for the top right corner. The only goal came at 64:33, eight seconds after Illinois State’s Grace Petrie got a yellow card. Hassan, the MVC Freshman of the Year, finished off a play set up by Veronica Gonzalez and Dana Nadda. Nadda led all players with five shots, two of them on goal, and also earned an assist. Illinois State pushed for an equalizer, but Miller stopped Aniya Seymore’s shot in the 75th minute to keep her shutout. The Redbirds (10-4-6) finished with eight shots, five on goal, and won the corner count 6-3. Law led them with three shots, two on goal, and Madi Valenti made four saves in the Illinois State goal, including stops on Maya Dixon and Nadda in the second half. Southern Illinois outshot Illinois State 11-8 in front of 350 fans.