EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Following a first-round bye, University of Southern Indiana Women's Soccer will make its debut in the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament Sunday afternoon when the Screaming Eagles host Morehead State University in a quarterfinal matchup. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. from Strassweg Field.
 
Southern Indiana (5-8-5, 4-2-3 OVC) earned the right to host a first-round contest and a bye into the quarterfinal round by capturing the No. 4 seed for the second consecutive season. Meanwhile, Morehead State (8-6-5, 4-3-2 OVC) is the No. 5 seed and made its way to Sunday's game by defeating the University of Tennessee at Martin, 1-0, in Thursday's first-round match at Strassweg Field to advance. The winner of Sunday's match will advance to the semifinals and take on No. 1 seed Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville, Tennessee next Thursday. Tennessee Tech earned the top seed and the right to host the semifinals and championship final after claiming its third consecutive OVC regular-season championship.
 
USI has clinched an OVC tournament berth in all three seasons at the D-I level. The Screaming Eagles look to earn a different result this time around after falling to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 3-1, in last year's quarterfinal match at Strassweg Field.
 
The Screaming Eagles sealed its No. 4 seed by concluding the regular season with four consecutive positive results and three wins in the last four matches, including a 3-0 home win last Sunday against Western Illinois University. Junior midfielders Emerson Grafton and Peyton Murphy were the goal-scorers for USI in addition to an own goal by the Leathernecks. The win against Western Illinois helped USI to the fourth seed, while Morehead State ended the regular season with a tie to drop to the fifth seed.
 
Southern Indiana is coming off a regular season that saw the Screaming Eagles achieve the most OVC wins (4), conference points (15), and goals scored (19) in its D-I era. USI's offensive success, especially down the stretch of OVC play, could be attributed to the team's attacking depth. 10 different players scored a goal with seven players scoring multiple times. Emerson Grafton leads USI with 12 points off three goals and six assists, which ranked second in the OVC. Sophomore midfielder Pilar Torres is next on the team with nine points off two goals and five assists. Torres scored USI's game-winning goal at Morehead State on October 13.
 
Earlier this week, the OVC recognized Emerson Grafton and her sister, junior defender Charli Grafton, with player of the week distinctions and all-conference honors.  Following last Sunday's win against Western Illinois, Emerson was the OVC co-Offensive Player of the Week and Charli was OVC Defensive Player of the Week. On Wednesday, both were named All-OVC Second Team for their performances during the regular season. Emerson was also selected to the OVC All-Newcomer Team.
 
Redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Anna Markland has been solid in recent outings alongside USI's defensive unit. Markland has two solo shutouts and two combined shutouts this season. Following the recent stretch of results, the netminder has lowered her goals against average to 1.53. Markland has grabbed 71 saves this season.
 
Fifth-seeded Morehead State is also on a nice run entering Sunday's tilt. Morehead State is 2-0-2 in its last four matches, including Thursday's first-round victory against UT Martin. The Eagles were led by all-conference selection Hedda Ornberg, who scored her eighth goal of the season in the third minute. Ornberg's tally held up the rest of the match, as the second-leading goal-scorer in the OVC found the back of the net in the third consecutive contest.
 
Ornberg tops Morehead State with 18 points off eight goals and two assists. The sophomore forward also leads the team with 43 shots and 30 shots on goal. Morehead State has three other players with three goals this year. Between the posts, freshman goalkeeper Lilly Bailey has made the majority of starts this season for Morehead State. Bailey has a 0.94 GAA with 56 saves. Bailey made seven saves against UT Martin on Thursday.
 
Sunday is the fourth all-time meeting between Southern Indiana and Morehead State and the second matchup this season. During the regular season, Southern Indiana captured a 1-0 victory at Morehead State on October 13. USI has won two straight in the series to lead all time, 2-1-0.
 
All games of the 2024 Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament can be seen with a subscription to ESPN+. Additional coverage for USI can be found on usiscreamingeagles.com with full tournament coverage on the OVC website at ovcsports.com.