Huskies Wrap Up Weekend with a 0-0 Double Overtime Draw Play Video
Posted: Oct 02, 2016

Huskies Wrap Up Weekend with a 0-0 Double Overtime Draw

HOUGHTON, Mich. – The Michigan Tech soccer team closed Homecoming weekend and the four match home stand with a 0-0 double overtime tie against Ohio Dominican University Sunday afternoon at Sherman Field. It was the first tie of the season for the Huskies and second straight game that went to overtime. Tech prevailed 2-1 in OT Friday night against Findlay.

"It was a very physical game and both teams were battling hard," Michigan Tech Head Coach Michelle Jacob said. "I give both teams a lot of credit for competing hard until the last second of the game. We struggled a little bit today working the ball forward into the box on offense. We got a lot of shots, but we were a little less connected than in past games. We are going to work on recovering this week and our possession game a little more in moving the ball forward as a team. We were very solid defensively again today in the backline and our midfielders Maddie Faust and Kat Farkas worked hard today and were impressive with the amount of work they put out there for us."

The first half of Sunday's match was contested mainly in the middle of the field with neither side getting many good looks at the goal. Farkas had the first shot of the afternoon for Michigan Tech (6-2-1, 2-1-1 GLIAC) that sailed wide and then senior Jessica Splittgerber forced goalie Marissa Wierzbicki to make her first save of the match in the 14th minute. The Huskies had three more attempts in the opening frame, but none were on goal.

Meanwhile, the Tech defense limited Ohio Dominican (3-3-4, 2-0-2 GLIAC) to just one shot attempt in the opening 45 minutes. Emily Riviello put a strike on the ball that sailed just over the crossbar in the 27th minute of the match.

The offensive attacks for both teams picked up in the second half with a combined 11 shots between Tech and ODU. Junior goalie Kirsen Hudak made two saves near the beginning of the second half to keep it a scoreless contest. Senior Jaci Mielke and sophomore Maddy Shortt followed with near misses when goalie Kelsey Harris made a pair of saves for ODU. Splittgerber forced Wierzbicki to make another save and Hudak stopped another shot by Lindsey Rentzsch of Ohio Dominican to keep it 0-0 going into the first overtime.

Each team took two shots in the first overtime, but Michigan Tech controlled the action in the second extra period. The Huskies eventually put enough pressure on the ODU defense leading to a penalty kick for Tech with just over a minute to go in the second overtime. Diving to her left, Wierzbicki managed to get her finger tips on the ball and prevent Splittgerber's kick from finding the back of the net.  Sophomore Rachel Wall unloaded one more shot for the Huskies from 40 yards out, but it sailed high as time expired.

Splittgerber, Mielke, and Farkas each had four shots to pace the Huskies offense on Sunday with three of the four by Splittgerber being on goal. Michigan Tech out shot Ohio Dominican 16-8 and owned a sizeable advantage in corner kicks 8-1. Hudak played all 110 minutes in net and made four saves.

Pavlik and Kethryn Mattingly each had two shots for Ohio Dominican while Wierzbicki and Harris split time in goal. Wierzbicki played 90:13 and made three saves garnering the decision on Sunday.

The Huskies will return to the field on Friday when they head to Saginaw Valley State for a GLIAC match starting at 1 p.m. Michigan Tech is tied for third in the GLIAC standings after the first two weekends of conference play. One of the teams tied with the Huskies is Saginaw Valley State. Following Friday's match, Tech will then head to Northwood on Sunday at noon to close the weekend.