Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
3-1-1
LSU
3-0-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | OT 3 | OT 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| LSU | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Soccer Impressive in 1-1 Draw at LSU
September 05, 2015 | Soccer
BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Ball State soccer team battled LSU to a 1-1 draw Friday on the opening night of this weekend's “Stomp in the Swamp.”
Elaina Musleh scored the goal for the Cardinals (3-1-1) in their first ever game against an opponent from the Southeastern Conference.
“It was a great battle tonight,” Ball State coach Craig Roberts said. “I'm really proud of our team because we faced some challenges. We played a high caliber SEC school in front of a good crowd on their home field, we traveled a long way to get here, and we battled the heat. The odds were stacked against us, but I'm excited we overcame each of those hurdles.”
The odds looked even greater when unbeaten LSU (3-0-2) struck first on a goal from Jorian Baucom in the 34th minute and took a 1-0 lead into the half.
But Ball State wasted little time evening the score after the break. The Cardinals converted on their only corner kick opportunity of the night when Leah Mattingly fed Musleh for a header in the 50th minute.
It was the first goal of the season for Musleh and the ninth of her Ball state career, and it helped the Cardinals to their first positive result against a Power 5 conference team since a 2006 win over Northwestern.
“It's a sign of how far we have come that we can go toe-to-toe against a high profile team like this,” Roberts said. “We want to show constant progression as we go toward our conference schedule, and we did that in every aspect tonight.”
The teams played scoreless through the final 40 minutes of regulation and both 10-minute overtime periods. Each team managed to get two shots off in overtime.
Both of Ball State's looks came in the second OT, but a Chelsy Swackhamer attempt sailed wide and a look by Kalynn Flanagan was blocked.
Ball State, which is allowing less than one goal per game, turned in another stout defensive performance, limiting LSU to only two shots on goal for the game. The teams combined for 16 total shots (eight for each team) and five shots on goal.
“I thought our back four were unbelievable tonight,” Roberts said. “In the middle, the work rate demonstrated by both Elaina and Chelsy was outstanding.”
The Cardinals will remain in Baton Rouge to close out this weekend's event Sunday at 11 a.m. CT (Noon ET) against Middle Tennessee.
Team Stats
Baucom, Jorian (4)
Assisted By: Gomez-Junco, Natalia
Flicked header inside right post from mi
33:43
MUSLEH, Elaina
Assisted By: MATTINGLY, Leah
Header from corner kick by #3.
49:50
