Big First Half Sends Dayton Past Racers

September 2, 2014

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A three-goal first half propelled Dayton past the Murray State women's soccer team, 5-1, on Sunday afternoon at Baujan Field in Dayton, Ohio.

The match was fairly even for the first 20 minutes, with only one shot on goal between the two teams, just one foul each, and no corners conceded by either side. However, in the 24^th minute, Erin O'Malley headed in a goal off of a corner by Nicole Waters to give the Flyers an early edge.

Just minutes later, Haley Keller fired one in near the lower left post to put UD up 2-0, despite the Racers (1-2) initial clearance off of a corner kick. In the 38^th minute, Nicole Waters assisted her second goal of the afternoon when she set up Ashley Campbell for the third goal of the half by the Flyers (2-1-1) to give her team a 3-0 lead at the break.

After the half, Julie Mooney got the Racers back into the mix when she was fed a ball by Pavlina Nepokojova and fired from the top of the box to the far post, closing Dayton's gap to 3-1. That would be as close as Murray State would get in the contest however, as Chelsea Rose and Meghan Blank added their names to the score sheet later in the stanza for the 5-1 Dayton victory.

The Racers were outshot in the contest for the first time this season, with UD taking a season-high 28 shots and limiting MSU to a season-low 11. Goalkeeper Savannah Haberman fell to 1-2 on the year, despite making a season-high five saves over a full 90 minutes.

Murray State will now travel to sunny Florida next week for two games in the Sunshine State. On Friday, the Racers will take their talents to South Beach when they take on Florida International in Miami at 4 p.m. CDT. On Sunday, MSU will make the relatively short trip across the panhandle to For Myers for a 12 p.m. CDT tussle with Florida Gulf Coast.