SEMO ROUNDUP: Redhawks women's soccer settles for road draw at Austin Peay

Southeast Missourian

Saturday, October 7, 2017

In its final road contest of the regular season, the Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team went to extra time for the fourth time in conference play, settling for a 1-1 draw with Austin Peay on Friday night in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Esmie Gonzales scored her second goal of the season in the 30th minute, off an assist from Lauren Kaempfe.

That gave the Redhawks (4-6-3 overall, 1-2-3 Ohio Valley Conference) a 1-0 lead, but it didn't last long, as Austin Peay (7-5-2, 2-3-2) got a 36th-minute strike from Kristen Robertson to pull even. It was Robertson's 10th goal of the season.

The game remained deadlocked after 90 minutes of regulation and each side managed four shots in overtime, including one on goal by Gonzales, but neither could come up with a game winner.

APSU out-shot Southeast 15-11 in the game (6-4 on target), though the Redhawks had eight corner kicks to Austin Peay's three.

SEMO goalkeeper Kindra Lierz was credited with five saves in the match.

Along with Lierz, defenders Jasmin Hilliard, Shay Darga and Maddi Karstens played all 110 minutes for Southeast.

Southeast now returns for a critical final stretch of four home games, beginning by hosting Belmont on Sunday at 2 p.m. The game will act as SEMO's Pink Up game to raise breast cancer awareness.

Volleyball

The Southeast volleyball team traveled to Charleston, Illinois, on Friday, where it fell to Eastern Illinois in straight sets, 25-19, 25-21 and 25-17.

The Redhawks fell to 6-13 overall and 1-4 in Ohio Valley Conference play with the result.

SEMO will meet EIU (8-9, 2-3) again this season, hosting the Panthers on Nov. 11.

In this showdown, Southeast was able to erase an early 5-0 deficit in the opening set and then stayed within two points midway through the game at 16-14. But the Redhawks could not get over the hump.

The second set featured 13 ties and eight lead changes as SEMO posted a .167 hitting percentage and got five kills from Nzingha Clarke. That helped Southeast to a 15-14 edge, but EIU put together a four-point run to go up 18-15. Southeast pulled even at 19, but Eastern Illinois jumped in front and stayed there, polishing off the game on a kill from Abby Knight.

That final momentum swing helped the Panthers roll into the final set, where they finished things off.

Clarke led Southeast with 11 kills on a .476 hitting percentage. Krissa Gearring and Madara Bajare each added five kills while setter Allie Henkelman contributed 21 assists and 12 digs for her fifth double-double of the season.

Keegan Fornoff breached the 900-assist career mark thanks to seven assists. She is currently 10th in program history with 905 assists.

Ally Dion led the visitors defensively with 16 digs.

Taylor Smith led EIU in four statistical categories: kills (12), aces (3), blocks (5) and assists (19). Madison Cunningham posted a team-high 15 digs.