EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Southern Indiana Women's Soccer hits the road for the fourth time in a stretch of five games Thursday when the Screaming Eagles visit Ohio Valley Conference-newcomer Western Illinois University. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. Thursday in Macomb, Illinois.
Southern Indiana is 2-6-4 overall and 1-1-1 in OVC action. USI is in the middle of the conference standings with four points and tied with Eastern Illinois University. Western Illinois is 2-4-4 this season with three ties in the conference season, sitting a point behind USI in the league table.
With three of its first four conference matches on the road, USI made the most of its lone home match during that stretch on Sunday. Southern Indiana recorded a 2-1 win against Morehead State University at Strassweg Field. The victory was USI's second overall this season and first in OVC play. Even though Sunday was USI's first home match since September 10, the Eagles have been picking up results along the way. USI has earned a result in five of the last six contests, going 2-1-3.
In a defensive showdown against Morehead State, USI got on the scoreboard first in the opening half off an own goal by Morehead State. Southern Indiana redshirt freshman goalkeeper
Anna Markland (Hoover, Alabama) made all four of her saves in the first half, maintaining USI's 1-0 advantage into halftime. With quality looks hard to come by against both defenses, USI made its only shot of the match count when freshman midfielder
Pilar Torres (Chula Vista, California) put USI up 2-0 in the second half with her third goal of the season and first career game-winning goal. On the goal-scoring play, sophomore midfielder
Shy Iles (Demossville, Kentucky) tallied her first assist of the season while freshman midfielder
Kerigan Kivisto (Collierville, Tennessee) registered her second assist of the 2023 season. Morehead State scored once with 12 minutes remaining, but USI closed out the win.
For the second consecutive season, a freshman is leading the goal-scoring for USI. After sophomore midfielder
Peyton Murphy (Bargersville, Indiana) paced the Screaming Eagles with five goals as a freshman in 2022, the freshman Torres tops the squad with three goals. Her three goals are sixth in the OVC. Torres and Murphy are tied with a team-best 15 shots, which is good for top 10 in the OVC.
USI might be in store for another defensive grind on Thursday against Western Illinois. Both teams were shutout in their first two conference matches, and while USI scored twice on Sunday, Western Illinois scored its first goal and allowed its only goal of conference play in a 1-1 tie against the University of Tennessee at Martin. Diving deeper into the team comparison, USI has taken 100 shots, but the Leathernecks have only attempted 53 shots and have scored six times. Despite what may appear as offensive conversion struggles, both teams are two of the top accurate shooting teams in the conference. USI has placed nearly half of its shots on goal and Western Illinois has put just over 50 percent of its attempts on target.
In the 1-1 tie against UT Martin, the Leathernecks were outshot 30-10 overall and 8-5 in shots on goal. Western Illinois scored the game's first goal right before halftime from junior midfielder Kayla Turner. Senior keeper Isabel Navas Rodriguez made seven saves. Rodriguez has 45 saves and a 1.11 GAA this season. Leading the Leathernecks offensively, freshman midfielder Alanna Pennington has two goals on nine shots, and freshman forward Kelsi McThenia has two goals on eight shots.
Thursday will be the third all-time meeting between the two schools. Western Illinois leads the all-time series 2-0 with Western Illinois winning the last matchup, 2-0, in 2009 at USI. The Leathernecks took the first meeting at home, 2-1, in 2007.
Thursday's contest can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+. Additional coverage links are on the USI Women's Soccer schedule page on usiscreamingeagles.com.
