Women’s Soccer Claims Fifth Straight, Defeats Saint Mary’s 1-0 In Overtime

BOX SCORE

WINONA, Minn. – Ninety minutes of play wasn’t enough time to decide a victor in Wednesday night’s Gustavus women’s soccer match at Saint Mary’s University as the Gusties and Cardinals played into overtime. But it was the Gusties who came out on top in the end as Maddison Ackiss (Jr., Fairbanks, Alaska) scored the game-winner in the 98th minute – her third game-winning goal of the season.

The Gusties extend their win streak to five, while improving to 5-3-1 overall and stand all alone on top of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference standings with 12 points and a mark of 4-0-0.

“We possessed the ball very well throughout the game, but we were not able to create any dangerous opportunities,” Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie said. “Moving into the second half we wanted to find that edge to our game and work on the quality of our final ball. We accomplished that, however it was a bit hectic at times. Near the end of the half we really turned it on with several shots on net and multiple dangerous corners.

“Going into overtime we turned it up a notch. Sophie Leininger had a fantastic individual effort to beat her defender in the box before finding Maddison Ackiss who also beat her defender and buried the ball in the back of the net.”

The Gustavus defense was stout, holding the Cardinals to just two shots throughout the entire match. The offense rattled off 14 shots before the 15th found the back of the net.

Ashley Becker (Fy., Farmington, Minn.) made two saves in the win, while her counterpart made 11 saves in a losing effort.

“Overall we did very well to possess the ball and we were able to turn it up a notch and win the game,” Burnett-Kurie said. “Credit to the team for finding a way to win in overtime.”

The Gusties continue MIAC play at 3:30 p.m., Oct 3 at Carleton College.