Soccer suffers heartbreaking defeat against Tennessee
Andy Kimball
Despite a brace from sophomore Sarah Luebbert, the Missouri Women’s Soccer team fell to No. 21 Tennessee 3-2 on Sunday in overtime for their fifth straight loss.
Junior Kadija Shaw won the game for the Volunteers with a majestic free kick three minutes into overtime. Shaw curled the shot around the wall right past the reach of goalkeeper Kristin Rivers and into the bottom left corner of the goal to ice the game for the Volunteers.
Shaw is the co-leader of goals scored in the SEC with 11.
“[Shaw] is probably the best kid in the conference right now,” head coach Bryan Blitz said. “She impacted the game, she got the assist to put it into overtime and then she got the winning goal.”
The Volunteer’s overcame deficits of 1-0 and 2-1 to force the game into overtime.
Luebbert gave the Tigers the lead in the 25th minute on a shot just outside the top of the box that ricocheted off of the far post and into the back of the net. Later in the game, Luebbert drew a penalty in the 57th minute and then calmly slotted home the spot kick for her fourth goal of the season to give Mizzou a 2-1 lead.
The Volunteers were able to overcome adversity and respond to both deficits. In the 55th minute sophomore Mary Alice Vignola put a shot into the top right corner to tie the game at 1-1.
Later, Shaw put in a cross to set up a shot by junior Anna Bialczak. Kristen Rivers made a great save but it trickled out to freshman Erin Gilroy who put away another equalizer for the Volunteers in the 86th minute to send the game to overtime.
Blitz said that the Tigers are still looking to put together a full 90 minute performance but added that they’re making progress from earlier in SEC play.
“We had two losses this weekend but this was probably our best weekend moving forward and we can take the positives from that,” Blitz said. “You’ve gotta play all the way through the game but we’re progressing.”
With the loss, the Tigers fall to 5-9-1 and 1-5 in conference play and will look to snap their five-game losing streak when they play at Kentucky on Oct. 12 at 7 p.m.