ISU soccer advances to MVC championship

By The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

Nov. 7--OMAHA, Neb. -- The top-seeded Illinois State women's soccer team moved into Sunday's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game with a 1-0 semifinal win over Drake on Friday at Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb.

Sophomore Jessica Carlson scored her sixth game-winning goal and 10th of the season to give the Redbirds the win. ISU (11-6-1, 6-1-0 MVC) will face No. 3 seed Creighton which upended No. 2 Missouri State in overtime, 2-1, in the other semifinal. The title game can be seen live on FSN Midwest at 1 p.m.

"I knew this game was going to be hard battle," said ISU coach Drew Roff. "Nothing comes easy at this point in the season. The seeds go out the window during tournament play and anything can happen. Drake really defended well, but we made the plays that we needed to make.

"After that goal, I had a good feeling that we were going to lock up the game and we got the shutout win."

Carlson's goal came at the 59-minute mark off an assist from Shannon Eccleston. A shot by Eccleston was mishandled by Drake goalkeeper Kourtney Arnold and Carlson pounded on the loose ball and banged it into the back of the Bulldogs net.

ISU goalkeeper Sasha Reiber turned aside two shots to record her fourth conference shutout and sixth shutout overall. The Redbirds outshot Drake (9-9-3, 3-4-0) by an 18-5 margin.

The Redbirds are now 11-0 when scoring first, while the goal gave Carlson 25 points on the season, fourth most in ISU history. Carlson is also tied for second all-time with eight game-winning goals for her career.

Illinois State is looking for its second Valley title. The Redbirds won the championship as the No. 2 seed in 2003 to earn the program's only NCAA tournament bid.

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