South Dakota State soccer earned the No. 3 seed in the Summit League Women’s Soccer Championship after drawing with the University of Kansas City and defeating Oral Roberts University.
Kansas City (1-1)
Both teams shot 16 times in the first period, but none found the back of the net. Eight more combined shots were missed before SDSU’s Lauren Walter booted one in at the 75th minute. Olivia Platt for the Roos evened up the score eight minutes later as the Jacks could only get one more shot in before time expired.
Mia Bosch led the Jacks with three shots and an assist. Four Jackrabbits shot twice each, including substitute player Shelby Hopeau, who recorded her first shot on goal of the season. Goalkeeper Mallorie Benhart made five saves.
Ashley Koch was the Roos best shooter with five on the night. Delfina Zolesio Fernandez shot four times with two on goal and an assist. Platt scored on the Roos’ only goal, shot three times with two on goal. Goalkeeper Anika Patton made four saves.
Oral Roberts (3-2)
The Jacks scored twice in the first six minutes of play. Welter was first in the fourth minute, followed by an unassisted Ellie Gusman goal in the sixth minute. The Golden Eagles evened the score by the 16th minute with help from Marlee Fort and Genesis Helsley.
Two minutes into the second period, SDSU broke the tie with a Zoe Wittkop score. The Golden Eagles only shot once after that, giving the Jacks the 3-2 victory.
Gusman and Emma Brezenski shared the most shots with two a piece. Both of Gusman’s shots were on goal. Goalkeeper Benhart made six saves.
Haley Nichols led ORU with three shots and two on goal. Three Golden Eagles shot twice each. Goalkeeper Jessica Reiss made two saves.
“I thought, for the most part, the whole weekend we played incredibly well,” head coach Brock Thompson said. “Just really proud of the way we played from the opening whistle.”
SDSU finishes the regular season at 10-2-6 overall and 4-1-3 in conference play.
Summit League
Championship
SDSU is seeded No. 3 for the second straight season in the Summit League Women’s Soccer Championship. They are set to play at Fishback Soccer Park against No. 6 Omaha, who finished conference play at 3-4-1.
Payten Ivins leads the Mavericks in offense with 35 shots and 17 on goal, a top 10 mark in the conference that is shared with Charley Kort. The sophomore has shot 25 times with three goals and four assists. Her shot total is shared with Kendall Dobberstein, who leads the team in assists with six and tied for the most team goals with Ivins.
On goalkeeping, Charlotte Huggard has the most playing time. With 13 starts, she has made 43 saves this season, sixth-most in the conference. She averaged 3.07 saves a game, which was the seventh best conference average. Huggard has only two shutouts this season, which were against North Dakota State and North Dakota in consecutive games in late September.
“[It’s] great to get a home game,” Thompson said. “But the other part of it is, Fishback Soccer Park has been good to us over the years.”
Game time is Saturday at 5 p.m. The game will be live streamed on the Summit League Network through Midco Sports Plus. The winner will travel to Tulsa to play No. 2 Denver on Thursday, Nov. 6.
