Box Score
The University of Wisconsin-Parkside women's soccer team clinched a berth in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament with a thrilling 2-1 win at Drury University on Friday evening. The Rangers, the defending GLVC Tournament champions, also maintained their one game lead over Rockhurst University for the right to host a quarterfinal match. Parkside is now 9-2-2 on the season with two regular season matches remaining.
The Rangers put the pressure on the Panthers early earning their only corner kick just a minute into the match. The corner resulted in a shot on goal by
Kristen Benson as Parkside got off to a quick start.
Things cooled down for much of the half before the Rangers struck for the first goal.
Natalie Brown finished off a cross from Benson from about eight yards out in the middle of the field to make it 1-0. Brown's fourth goal of the season came in the game's 28th minute.
The teams combined for 13 shots in the first half as the score remained 1-0 going into the locker room.
Parkside again came out firing and provided five of the half's first six shots before Drury evened things out and began to apply some pressure of their own.
It finally paid off in the 78th minute when Lindsey Sprouse scored from about five yards in front of the net as she beat
Cassie Glodowski to even the score. Hillary Cockrell and Sarah Duffy assisted on Sprouse's third goal as the late tally looked to push UWP to its fourth straight overtime.
Fortunately for the Rangers there would be no overtime on Friday. Just under three minutes later they registered what turned out to be the game-winning goal as
Megan Owens finished right in front of the net on a pass from Brown for a 2-1 lead.
They made it hold up limiting the Panthers to just two shots in the final ten minutes to preserve the victory.
Cassie Glodowski earned the win in net recording two saves over 90 minutes. Parkside outshot Drury 13-12 on the night and 7-3 on goal.
The Rangers wrap up their trip to Missouri with a noon start on Sunday against Missouri S&T. The Rangers can all but clinch a home match in the first round with a win in Rolla as they would currently own the tiebreaker with Rockhurst by virtue of the team's victory at Bellarmine earlier this season.
