NKU Women’s Soccer Exhibition Ends in Tie

The Women’s Soccer exhibition game against the Morehead State Eagles ended in a stalemate of 1-1 Saturday night. Morehead State only had one shot on goal, while the Norse produced seven. Junior Megan Patrick assisted junior midfielder Kailey Ivins on the lone goal of the evening.

NKU and the Eagles both started exhibition season with losses. With NKU losing to Middle Tennessee 2-1 on Tuesday and Morehead losing to Marshall 2-0, both teams were fighting for a preseason win.

“Morehead State is very well coached,” Head Coach Bob Sheehan said. “They’re very well organized, so it’s a terrific opponent to play in preseason.”

In the first half, the Norse held kept Morehead from creating any shots on the goal and created four for themselves. Morehead was able to take one corner kick in the 21st minute, but did not convert that corner into a goal.

“The first half was pretty rocky for us,” Ivins said. “… we’re kind of a younger team as well. We have a lot of lower classmen so just getting through the pains of the first half.”

After halftime, the intensity and focus changed and more plays were made. 

“I think when it came to the second half we … came together,” Ivins said. “We were connecting balls and just had more of a confidence as a team in the final third.”

Off the bench came Patrick, who served the ball to Ivins from a corner kick to put the Norse up 1-0 in the 60th minute.

“Kailey’s one of our tall players so that’s someone that we do look for when we’re serving,” Patrick said. “You kind of just like aim for the middle of the box and who ever is there [scores].”

In the 74th minute, Morehead answered back, which brought the score to 1-1. 

Transfer goalie Mimi Stines made several big plays throughout the night and collected one save.

“I think she’s come in and asserted herself,” Coach Sheehan said. “She’s strong goalkeeper, she’s a good communicator really high character person and she’s had a really good preseason.”

For the game, Morehead was able to keep possession for 53% of the game while NKU held it for 47%. Despite the possession disadvantage, the Norse out shot Morehead 15-3, and also won the shots on goal 7-2.

After this preseason matchup, the young team has identified their areas of improvement that “will come with time.” Coach Sheehan acknowledges the changes as well and feels the team spirit will boost them to get to where they need to be to win.

“I think the important thing to take away here is that we’ve got a lot of players who want to get on the field and their efforts, if they didn’t start, were fantastic tonight,” Coach Sheehan said. “If we can get that type of intensity off the bench then our team’s only going to continue to grow and improve.”

The Norse begin their regular season on the road in Tennessee against Lipscomb University on Thursday Aug. 22. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.