The William Jewell College men’s and women’s soccer teams spent their fall break on the road against Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) opponents. Each team played against the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville, Ind. Friday Oct. 10 and Sunday Oct. 12 against the University of Illinois-Springfield in Springfield, Ill.
The women lost their game against Southern Indiana in double-overtime 3-2. Jade Gifford, junior, put the Cardinals ahead early with her third goal of the season. Southern Indiana tied the game in the 68th minute, but Jewell’s Aspen Hawkins, first-year, answered on an assist from Gabby Brooks, junior, in the 79th minute. The Cardinals were unable to hold on to the lead when Southern Indiana scored in the 89th minute. Southern Indiana went on to score in the second overtime to win the game.
The second game of the weekend ended in a 1-0 win for the Cardinals when Brooks found Gifford for the game-winning goal in the 83rd minute. Goalie Jordan Lewis, first-year, recorded the shut out for the game.
The rain made for muddy playing conditions, which forced the Cardinals away from their normal style of play.
“The weekend was challenging. We controlled the tempo of both games, and should have come home with two wins. It rained during both games, making the field conditions hard to play on. We couldn’t play with as much skill and finesse as we usually do,” said Erin Christiansen, senior.
The men faced the same fate as the women against Southern Indiana. The Screaming Eagles scored two goals back-to-back in the second half to beat the Cardinals. Despite allowing two scores, goalie Shane Van Hooser, senior, recorded 10 saves for the game.
In the second game, the men were able to score three goals in the second half to beat the University of Illinois Springfield 4-1. The Cardinals took the lead in the first half when Jordan Lindsey, first-year, assisted the goal by Tristan Morgan, first-year. Lindsey was able to find Morgan again early in the second half, and Lindsey netted a goal of his own later in the half to make the score 3-0. The Cardinals did give up a goal in the 66th minute, but then closed out the game when University of Southern Indiana scored an own goal to make the final score 4-1.
The Cardinals’ bench players provided the spark the team needed to be successful in the last game.
“The second game we came out with a better mentality and conditions were about the same [as the first game] so we had gotten our touches down a little better,” Van Hooser said. “What led to our success was a couple of people stepping up off the bench bringing a lot of energy to the team and field as they had fresher legs.”
After the weekend, the women’s record moves to 6-3-3 (5-3-2), which puts them in sixth overall in the GLVC. The men have a current record of 3-7-3 (2-5-3) and are 13th in the GLVC standings. The teams will have to end the season in the top eight in the Conference to make the postseason tournament.
With only five games left in the regular season, both teams are looking to finish the season with wins to propel them into the postseason.
Senior night for both teams is Oct. 17 at Greene Stadium against Bellarmine University, the women start at 5:00 p.m. and the men at 7:30 p.m. They also play on Oct. 19 at home against McKendree University: the women at 12:00 p.m. and the men at 2:30 p.m.