RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Gustavus women’s soccer and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls ended in a 0-0 stalemate after double overtime Wednesday night at Ramer Soccer Field.
The Gusties move to 2-0-1 overall and UW-River Falls is now 0-2-1.
Ashley Becker (So., Farmington, Minn.) continues to shutdown opponents as she made four saves to record her third consecutive and 14th career shutout. Her 110 minutes played ties a career-high.
An even first half concluded with the Gusties and UW-River Falls both having five attempted shots on goal.
“River Falls is a constant threat in behind, which tested our defenders. After a fairly open beginning 25 minutes where the game was going from goal to goal, our defense started to settle down and prevent them from creating many dangerous opportunities,” said Head Coach Laura Burnett-Kurie.
Neither squad could find the back of the net in the second period or the two overtimes. Gustavus outshot UW-River Falls 15-10 and 5-4 in shots on goal. Maddison Ackiss (Sr., Fairbanks, Alaska) led the Gusties with three shots on goal.
“Overall it was an exciting game,” Burnett-Kurie said. “We have been working on connecting more and finding our rhythm in the attack and we made huge strides today. At times we looked incredibly sharp moving the ball up the field and building into the attack. Our attack looked much better and we consistently found ourselves with numbers up in dangerous positions. We forced not only their goalkeeper but their back line to come up with some big plays. We hit a couple posts and had the ball cleared off the line a few times, a goal just wasn’t in the cards for us today.”
Gustavus returns home to battle Crown College at 4 p.m. Friday at Gustie Soccer Field.
“At the end, it was a great battle for us and a game we can take confidence from. There are always positives you can take away from a well played game and we are excited to shift our focus on to Crown College on Friday,” said Burnett-Kurie.