By: By Libby Knight
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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The Kennesaw State soccer team battled for the full 90 minutes, but dropped a hard-fought 2-0 match against Oklahoma in the two program’s first-ever meeting on Sunday at Regal Soccer Stadium on the campus of the University of Tennessee.
"We got a lot of positives out of that match," said head coach
Rob King. "I was very pleased on the second half. We had a 0-0 performance in the second half with a lot of fight and I thought defensively we did a great job. We kept them out and were very organized. We had a little bit of diffuculty connecting with our forwards in there to actually generate very good chances. We had one very good one on a breakaway that we were not able to capitalize. First half we did not really allow them very many good chances. They scored off of two set pieces, which we talked about. Overall a good weekend, a win and a loss and lots of things learned."
The Sooners used back-to-back goals from Madison Saliba in the first half to take control of the match. Saliba put OU up 1-0 in the 28th minute on a corner kick that sailed to the backside of the goal and deflected off KSU freshman goalkeeper
Olivia Sturdivant for the score.
Just two minutes later, Saliba struck again on a free kick from 20 yards out that went straight into the top right corner of the goal.
The Owls continued to battle in the second half, putting more pressure on the OU backline in the final 20 minutes of the match. Freshman
Shannon Driscoll provided the best scoring chance of the day for the Owls with less than 10 minutes remaining in the match. Junior
Julia Nelson played an on-target through ball to free Driscoll for a one-on-one opportunity with OU goalkeeper Miranda Larkin, but was turned away on the shot.
KSU tallied three shots on the day with two coming on frame, while Oklahoma posted 12 shots with seven on goal. Driscoll, freshman
Suzanne Arafa and redshirt-junior Julia Strickland each notched a shot, with both Driscoll and Arafa’s shots on target. Saliba led the Sooners with three shots, all coming on goal.
The Owls earns three corners in the contest, while OU earned seven.
Sturdivant collected five saves in the match. Larkin totaled two saves in the win.
The Owls next travel to Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Carolina Nike Classic. KSU opens the tournament on Friday, August 30 against No. 7 Duke on Friday at 2 p.m. (ET), before challenging No. 1 North Carolina on Sunday, September 1 at 3 p.m.
To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State soccer news follow the team on Twitter
@KSUOwlNation and @
KSUOwlsSoccer or by liking Kennesaw State University on
Facebook.
- #GoKSUOwls -
