Women's soccer team defeats Jacksonville State in first round of OVC Tournament

The Southeast Missouri State women's soccer team advanced to the semifinal round of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament where it will face No. 2 seed Tennessee Tech after its first round win on Sunday.

During Sunday's game, Southeast tied Jacksonville State 1-1, but prevailed in a 3-2 shootout, clinching the spot for Friday's match.

Sophomore goalkeeper Kindra Lierz made five saves during the Jacksonville State match, totalling 76 for the season so far. Junior forward Angie Mann led the team with four shots in the game.

The Redhawks wrapped up their 2015 regular season on Oct. 29 and now have an overall record of 8-5-7 and are 3-2-5 in OVC play.

The team finished its final regular season in a match that ended in a double overtime 0-0 draw against UT Martin, which finished with the No. 4 seed. Lierz had a career-high record with 16 stops.

The standard was set pretty high last year, according to freshman forward/defender Lauren Kaempfe, who was referring to the Redhawks' 2014 regular season OVC champion title.

Although the Redhawks finished first in the OVC last season, they were not able to do so this year.

This didn't stop the team from finishing strong this season, but released the pressure and allowed them to play more confidently.

"We were able to play more free and relaxed," assistant coach Adam Kleman said. "Hopefully that will allow us to achieve our goal of winning the OVC tournament championship."

"The team has had a different kind of year," Kleman said.

With several injuries from returning players, the team has gone through a transition period of training and developing the new athletes to fill starting roles.

The Redhawks brought on nine new faces this season.

"Out of 24 field players, that's a large portion of the team," Kleman said. "We wanted to get them caught up as soon as possible because most years you don't have as many newcomers playing such big roles."

"Transitioning a lot of our freshmen into playing big roles was one of our big goals," Lierz said. "I think we have accomplished that."

The Redhawks' freshman class has made several contributions to the team. Kaempfe had a total of 1,711 minutes played, six points and two assists. Freshman forward Brooke Merseal totalled 753 minutes and one assist, while freshman forward Jordan Nelson had a total of 498 minutes, one point and one assist.

The Redhawks have dealt with their fair share of setbacks, injuries being one of them.

"This season has been a bit rocky for us," Lierz said, "but we always try to keep fighting."

Southeast has gone through a tough season, and Lierz credits the 4-1 loss against Murray State as a pivotal moment for the team's momentum.

"From that point, we knew we needed to either pick it up then or the rest of the season would be cut short," Lierz said.

One of the team's goals was to get into the OVC tournament, and it did just that.

The Redhawks traveled to play the No. 3 seed, Jacksonville State, on Sunday in the quarterfinal round of the of the OVC tournament.

Winning the OVC Tournament Soccer Championship is the next goal in the Redhawks' future.

"Winning the OVC championship will allow us to advance to the NCAA tournament championship, which is our ultimate goal," Kleman said.

"That's our hope, but we have to go through a lot of good teams to get there," Kaempfe said regarding the prospect of winning the OVC Tournament.

The Redhawks are preparing for a fight in the upcoming matches.

"This team at hand has some unfinished business and can cause a lot of noise in the OVC Tournament," Kleman said.

"We just need to keep working harder and never step down our game," Lierz said.

Junior forward Angie Mann is leading the team in goals with a total of eight. Junior midfielder Natasha Minor follows with seven.

Out of Mann's 33 shots taken, 22 of them were shots on goal. Mann is tied with junior midfielder Jennifer Antonacci on game-winning goals, both with two.

Sophomore midfielder Paige Blankenheim is leading the team in assists with a total of four, with senior defender Paige Luehmann following at three.