Pride and No. 23 Missouri Valley play to 0-0 draw

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Getting their first taste of home action in the Heart of America Athletic Conference, the Clarke University women's soccer team played No. 23 Missouri Valley College to a 0-0 draw on Saturday at Burrows Field.

The draw snaps a seven-game losing streak to the Vikings for the Pride as their last non-loss came in the 2018 season when they earned a 1-0 win over MVC at home.

Clarke's highlight of the scoreless game may have been the performance of junior goalkeeper Faith Krapfl as the Peosta, Iowa native made a season-high eight saves, four shy of her career-high set back in her freshman season of 2022 against the same Missouri Valley team.

One of the biggest moments of the game came early on as Vikings' leading scorer Ashley Arribas was given an open opportunity behind the Pride defense but Krapfl was quick to come off of her line and slide to perfectly collect the ball off of the feet of Arribas and prevent an early quality scoring chance.

Krapfl went on to make five of her eight saves in the first half as her counterpart in the Missouri Valley box, Marina Barbara Bujalance was only tasked to make one save in the opening 45 minutes but it was a big one late in the period as CU freshman Emily Marino was fed into open space by Morgan Catchur but the Vikings keeper made the save to keep it scoreless with just under five mintues remaining in the half.

Following a first half mostly controlled by the Vikings, outshooting the Pride 10-3, Clarke was able to play a higher quality second 45 minutes to at least bring possession more to even if not more in favor of CU outshooting MVC 4-3 in the second half where both Krapfl and Barbara Bujalance needing to make multiple saves in the half.

The final quality chance for either side came off of the left foot of Bailey Wiemann as she found a little bit of space in the box while fighting off a defender on her back but the shot went wide to the right.

Staying unbeaten in conference play, now at 2-0-1, the Pride will be away from play in the mid-week next week for their next game coming on Homecoming Friday when they welcome MidAmerica Nazarene University to Burrows Field for a 3:30 p.m. CT kickoff at Burrows Field.