FULTON, Mo. - For the second time in as many matches, William Woods (1-1-3) battled to a scoreless draw, although Sunday's result against Southwestern Christian University (0-0-3) was considerably more satisfying after a 6-0 loss to the Eagles in 2023.
Belle Boschert had nine saves in the match, including a game-saving stop in the 88th minute.
"I'm proud of our team for earning a much better result than last year," said head coach
Lauren Robb. "We still have room for improvement and will keep learning from each game. With a stretch of home games to look forward to this week, we hope to find the back of the net and get our offense going again."
Woods found the first solid chance of the match in the 10th minute.
Hannah Loethen brought the ball up the right wing from midfield and raced to the corner. Her first cross attempt was blocked, but fell right back to her feet for a second crack that went out for a WWU corner.
Zoe Hargis found herself open for a chance in the 13th minute, but her shot was pushed wide by Marta Papandrea for a second Woods corner.
SCU managed to turn the momentum shortly afterwards and held it for the remainder of the half. Boschert managed solid saves in the 21st and 26th minutes to keep the Eagles off the board.
The most dangerous threat of the half came in the 30th minute as Riley Stanfill found an opening on the left wing and sent in a towering cross. SCU had a pair of extra attackers in the box giving the Woods back line trouble, but grad transfer
Maddy Schrader leapt up and calmly nodded the cross out of danger into the sure hands of Boschert.
Woods took control of the match in the second half, nearly finding pay dirt in the 60th minute courtesy of a
Megan Hughes cross. The sophomore turned her defender in the right corner and sent in a towering cross that was briefly bobbled by Papandrea, but just as quickly gathered.
As the match wound down, the pace became frenetic as both teams battled for a goal.
Zoe Hargis had a solid chance for Woods in the 74th minute on an Owls corner. The sophomore found herself in the middle of the box with the ball at her feet and blasted a shot toward goal that was cleared off the line by an SCU defender. After the ball caromed around the area for a few seconds, it settled back to the feet of Hargis but her second effort was saved by Papandrea.
Boschert came up huge for Woods in the 88th minute, as SCU forced a turnover and sent Jaina Munoz on a quick counter attack. As the Eagle forward collected the long ball, Boschert read the attack perfectly and raced to the top of her penalty area to force Munoz into an early shot. The pressure worked, but Boschert dove to her right and smothered the shot with ease.
Woods managed a last-ditch effort in the 90th minute, but
Zoe Lockhert wasn't able to find the final touch as the horn sounded.
The Owls are back in action on Wednesday night, with a 5 p.m. kickoff against Evangel University.
