UTM SOCCER FALLS SHORT IN BLOOMINGTON VERSUS HOOSIERS

Thursday, August 26

Bloomington, Ind.

7:00 PM

UT Martin

1-1-1, 0-0-0

Indiana

2-0-1, 0-0-0

UT Martin

Indiana

UTM SOCCER FALLS SHORT IN BLOOMINGTON VERSUS HOOSIERS

8/27/2021 12:19:00 AM | Soccer

Box Score PDF Boxscore

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – More than holding their own in the midst of a head-to-head matchup against Big Ten competition on Thursday night, the University of Tennessee at Martin ultimately couldn't provide the equalizer after a first-half dagger from the Indiana Hoosiers on the road, succumbing to a 1-0 defeat in the third contest of the 2021 semester.

It took 238 minutes for a Skyhawk opponent to squeeze one through the vaunted UTM defensive front, but once IU's Avery Lockwood produced the Hoosiers' second goal of the season towards the closing moments of the opening stanza, UT Martin was reduced to playing catchup from there. Despite a handful of promising opportunities to potentially send the match into extra minutes for the second time in four days, the end result kept the Skyhawks off the board for the second straight appearance to drop head coach Phil McNamara's group to an overall record of 1-1-1.

Across a meeting of two schools who had just participated in scoreless ties at the close of the previous weekend (UT Martin against Little Rock while Indiana was blanked versus Notre Dame), both teams' constant sharing of the ball and attempts to control possession led to a low shot total when all was said and done, as IU ultimately held the advantage at 8-4.

Once a pair of lightning-related delays pushed the final 76 minutes of the match full speed ahead, the Hoosiers connected on just their second look at the net of the evening off the leg of Lockwood which held up as the only goal given up by UTM starting keeper Erica Myers over 21 shots faced this year.

True freshman Izzy Patterson, as well as one of last spring's Ohio Valley Conference 1^st-Team defender honorees Maria Castaldo, tallied the Skyhawks' three shot tries over the first 45 minutes, the former guiding the ball just left of the target 95 seconds before Indiana produced the only successful strike of the late night.

As it so happened, Patterson was responsible for UTM's only shot attempt of the second period even though the Skyhawks made several flurries in Hoosier territory. IU, content with the slim 1-0 advantage, adopted a keep-away strategy for the majority of the last stanza to limit the amount of chances the visitors had at the back of the net.

While Myers stunted a dangerously close Lockwood tap with under two seconds to go in the first frame (one of the graduate's three saves on the night to put her solely into 2^nd place in the school's all-time records list), the lone score given up seven minutes earlier proved to be the driving factor in the 1-0 final decision.

Anna Bennett joined Lockwood as the only two Hoosiers with two shots collected, while goalkeeper Jamie Gerstenberg scooped up her second victory of the fall while needing just one save on Castaldo's solo attempt in the 28^th minute.

After coming up on the short end of the stick against the Hoosiers, UT Martin will wrap up their three-game road trip on Sunday afternoon in the same vicinity, heading to Indiana State on August 29^th for a 12:00 kickoff against the Sycamores representing the Missouri Valley Conference. Thus far in 2021, ISU has been 50/50 during their first two events, downing Eastern Illinois 3-1 before suffering a double-overtime loss to Northern Illinois in De Kalb 72 hours later. The Sycamores travel to Columbia, Missouri to face the Tigers on Friday before the meeting with the Skyhawks at the tail end of the weekend.

Over the program's 23-year history, UTM has battled Indiana State on two separate occasions, dropping a 4-2 decision in 2013 before earning payback one year later at home by a 3-0 margin. The Skyhawks will take part in three non-conference home matches in a row following their extended stay in Indiana.