HISTORICAL SKYHAWK SOCCER SEASON COMES TO AN END IN OVC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

Sunday, November 4

Martin, Tenn.

2 P.M.

UT Martin

15-3-1

No. 2 Murray State

13-5-1

Murray State

UT Martin

HISTORICAL SKYHAWK SOCCER SEASON COMES TO AN END IN OVC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

11/4/2018 6:04:00 PM | Soccer

Box Score

MARTIN, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee at Martin soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the Ohio Valley Conference Championship match this afternoon in a 2-1 decision to Murray State.

UT Martin (15-3-1) finishes the 2018 season with the most victories in program history all while being ranked in the upper echelons of NCAA Division-I women's soccer in several categories. Along the way, the Skyhawks claimed their third OVC Regular Season Championship, notched the OVC Offensive Player of the Year Honor (Amy McGivern), OVC Defensive Player of the Year accolade (Kaci Mitchell) and OVC Coach of the Year (Phil McNamara), four All-OVC first team recipients, a second team honoree and a pair of All-Newcomer team nods.

UT Martin outshot the Racers by a 13-7 margin and saw Mitchell connect for a goal in the bout. Leading the Skyhawks in the shot column was Skylor Keane with four as McGivern tallied a trio of shots and Nicole Collins tallied a pair of swings. Sara Ketis, Alice Adams and Mitchell all reeled off a shot apiece.

The Skyhawks used just three subs as seven players logged the full 90 minutes on the pitch while nine player tallied 78 minutes or more on the day.

Goalkeeper Erica Myers clocked in for the full match between the posts as she racked up a pair of saves in the contest.

The first half of play was a defensive set as the league-leading Skyhawks tallied only five shots in the period but would go into the intermission knotted up at 0-0.

Murray State struck in the 48^th minute as Rebecca Kubin tallied an unassisted goal as she beat Myers in a one-on-one matchup. The Racers scored their second and final goal at the 55:06 mark as Miyah Watford found a putback off of a friendly missed shot off of the goalpost to find the back of the net from just four yards out.

UT Martin would make a late push in the 63^rd minute as Mitchell recorded her second goal in as many days when she issued a strike from 25 yards out to find the top right corner of the net. In waning minutes, the Skyhawks made a valiant effort to find the equalizing goal as a host of UT Martin players reeled off strikes, but to no avail.

"This was really difficult to take," McNamara said. "This was a game where we had all of the stats and we outshot them but we couldn't get the goals to find the back of the net. We weren't as clean as we have been all year long but we give all the credit to Murray State. They scored two fantastic goals in the second half and we found ourselves come up just short in the second half. This was a phenomenal season and we had some great quality play out of this group. We are very proud of our seniors and grateful of their impact that they have made on this program.

The trio of Sara Ketis, Danae Kaldaridou and Jacalyn Schubring were named to the 2018 OVC Soccer All-Tournament Team along with Henar Urteaga and Lindsey Carlson of Eastern Illinois, Zoe Aguirre and Monica Rios of Eastern Kentucky and Izzy Heckman, Karsyn Hasch, Joselle Morche and Alex Steigerwald of Murray State.