Pride's 2-1 win over Missouri Baptist caps off non-conference play

ST. LOUIS, Mo. - In the middle of a three-game stretch all on the road, the Clarke University women's soccer team earned a 2-1 victory against Missouri Baptist University on Tuesday afternoon for their fifth win of the season.

Goals were traded back and forth as CU's Hope Ward opened the scoring in a way she's become accustomed to as she skied for a header off of a nice corner kick feed from Jamie Albertson to put the ball on net for the MBU defenders to attempt to clear it off the line but it was eventually deflected off the post and in for the first goal of the game.

That corner kick was only one of four total awarded in the game as Clarke received three of those four corner kicks and took advantage of the rare set piece opportunity. The rest of the box score reads as a fairly even game with shots going 12-11 in favor of the Pride, shots on goal being and even 5-5, and fouls finishing at 11-10 with MBU producing the most infractions whistled against them.

The Spartans answered about five minutes later as Skylar Hollingshead scored in similar fashion off of an initial save from Pride keeper April Lashomb that bounced around and found Hollingshead as she was able to strike it into a mostly open net and tie it at 1-1.

Lashomb would finish her 90 minutes in net with four saves on five shots on goal faced for her third win of the season to move her record to 3-0-1 so far on the season.

With under 10 minutes remaining in the opening half, Clarke would be the beneficiaries of a Missouri Baptist hand ball inside of their own 18-yard box to award the Pride a penalty kick that would be taken and scored by Shannon Catchur for her fourth goal of the season to make it 2-1 as that's where it would finish after a scoreless second half.

Pride women's soccer will now enter Heart of America Athletic Conference action with an unblemished 5-0-2 record in non-conference play for their first unbeaten non-conference season as an NAIA program.

CU will open Heart play on Saturday with a road matchup against Graceland University with a 2:00 p.m. CT scheduled kickoff in Lamoni, Iowa against the Yellowjackets.