The Northern Iowa women’s soccer team traveled to Springfield to take on the Missouri State Bears.
Early in the game, the Bears got into foul trouble, committing two penalties.
In the first 10 minutes, neither team had a shot on goal. With just under 32 minutes to go in the half, the Bears fired a shot on goal that missed wide right.
The Bears had another shot attempt soon after but Panther goalie Caitlin Richards came up with a save.
With fifteen minutes left in the half, the Panthers had an opportunity to get on the board, but Sophia Balistreri’s shot missed wide right.
Each team exchanged shots on goal for the rest of the half, but neither could get on the board. The score remained 0-0 going into halftime.
Both teams came out firing to start the second half. The Bears had a shot on goal that missed wide right, while Panther forward Lauren Heinsch’s shot was caught by the Bears goalkeeper.
The Panthers were held without a shot on goal attempt for over 23 minutes. The Bears were able to get two attempts but couldn’t capitalize on either.
Towards the end of the second half, Ashley Harrington received a yellow card. Soon after, the Bears were penalized for being offside.
Harrington had an opportunity to break the tie with twenty five minutes to go, but her shot attempt was saved by the Bears goalie.
The scoreless tie was finally broken, as Missouri State scored to make it 1-0 with just under 15 minutes to go in the game.
With just under 10 minutes to go in the game, the Panthers had two opportunities to tie the game. Allison Groothuis fired a shot that ended up missing high and off to the right. Maddie Celarek had a shot attempt that was saved. That would be the Panthers last opportunity to score as Missouri State would win 1-0.
The Panthers would fall to 12-3-1 on the season and 5-19 overall versus Missouri State. The Panthers are back in action on Thursday at 7 p.m. as they travel to take on the Valparaiso Crusaders on ESPN+.
