The Skyhawk soccer team came into this weekend looking to continue their recent climb up the OVC rankings, but instead continued their trend of struggling on the road. Defending conference champion Samford downed UTM 2-0 on Friday, and Jacksonville State outplayed the Skyhawks 3-1 on Sunday afternoon.

Samford opened what their head coach Todd Yelton called “the best game [Samford] played all year” on fire scoring two goals in the first twenty minutes. The first of which came only 1:19 into the first half when Bulldog Rebecca Bohler netted a top shelf goal from fifteen yards out.

With momentum in their favor, the Bulldogs scored their second goal only fifteen minutes later when Heather Birdswell found the back of the net from 35 yards out giving Samford a 2-0 lead, which they carried into the halftime break.

In the second half the Skyhawks were still unable to get their offensive attack on track. UTM who averages 22 shots per game, was limited to only four shot attempts in the second half, and nine total for the game. Samford’s defense, lead by freshman goalkeeper Cayley Winters, recorded their third consecutive shutout and have given up only one goal in four conference games.

“We played ok, but not our best,” according to UTM head coach Nathan Pifer, “we worked hard but just couldn’t score.”

The Skyhawk’s second loss of the weekend came by a score of 3-1 at the hands of Jacksonville State, in large part to the team “letting down and not playing well” according to Pifer. Like Samford the Gamecocks were able to curtail the Skyhawks offensive output limiting them to only ** shots for the match.

The first score of the match came when JSU’s Daniela Malta curled a corner kick into the box that deflected off a Skyhawk defender resulting in an own goal.

Early in the second half the Gamecocks added a second goal with a shot that deflected of Skyhawk goalkeeper Megan Dempsey and directly to Gamecock’s Elsa Kurlychek who knocked in her second career goal.

The Gamecocks tacked on an insurance goal in the 57th minute, when Ashley Smith was fouled in the box and netted the resulting penalty kick.

UTM would finally record their first goal of the match in the 72nd minute when sophomore Katie Berhens found the cutting Dani Myrick who scored her fifth goal of the season.

With the weekend losses UTM falls into a tie for seventh in the OVC standings. Hopes of appearing in the conference tournament, which features the top six teams in the conference, has not been lost though.

The Skyhawks three remaining conference matches they will need more than just a good showing as they face must win situations against Eastern Illinois, Murray State, and Southeast Missouri who are currently ranked 1-2-3 respectively in the OVC.

The Skyhawks will look to use Skyhawk Field, where they are unbeaten this year, to their advantage as they will be home for all three remaining conference matches.

The first of which will be this Thursday at 4 p.m. when Murray State comes to town. Murray who is currently riding a school record four game winning streak, but is 1-4 all time against UTM and has never at Skyhawk Field.

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