Louisville, KY, 11/2/21 – The Blue Jay women's soccer team made the long trip to Louisville, Kentucky to take on the Spalding University Golden Eagles in Tuesday nights SLIAC Tournament Quarterfinal. IT was an epic double overtime thriller that came down to penalty kicks, seven penalty kicks by each side. Unfortunately, it would be the Golden Eagles who would make their seventh and final penalty shot to edge the Blue Jays 4-3 in the PK shootout. The loss in PK's ends the Blue Jays season at 7-9-1 and 7-7 in SLIAC play. The victory sends Spalding to Thursday nights semifinal.
Spalding struck first in the 39th minute to go up 1-0 and they would take that lead into halftime. The Blue Jays would score the equalizer early in the second half on a Lauren Halamicek (St. Louis, MO / Oakville High School) blast in the 54th minute to tie the game 1-1. The two teams would then battle through two overtimes as the game would stay 1-1. The game will be shown as a 1-1 tie officially but the teams would go to a penalty kick shootout to determine who would advance to the SLIAC Tournament Semifinal.
Spalding would start the shootout and Blue Jay goalkeeper Megan Davidson (St. Louis, MO / Affton High School) would defend for the Jays. Spalding would make their first penalty kick to take the 1-0 lead. The Jays Abbey Montana (Barnhart, MO / Seckman) would bury her shot to tie it 1-1. Davidson would make a diving stop on Spalding's second PK. The Blue Jays Halamicek would hit the crossbar and the score would remain 1-1 through two rounds. The next Spalding shooter would also hit the crossbar keeping it 1-1. The Blue Jays Payton Heevner (Warrensburg, MO / Warrensburg) would send her PK just wide of the goal mouth to the left and it was 1-1 after three rounds. Spalding's fourth shooter would score on the ground just inside the right post for a 2-1 lead. The Blue Jays Maddy Lawton (Wentzville, MO / Timberland) would blast one to the left inside the post to tie the shootout 2-2 after four rounds. Spalding would score their fifth kick to go up 3-2. Annalise Beck (St. Louis, MO / Notre Dame High School) would face a must make PK to extend it to another round and she would do just that scoring inside the right post to tie it at 3-3. In the sixth round Davidson would make another save and would give the Blue Jays a chance to win it. Savannah Feltrop (Jefferson City, MO / Helias) would be stopped by the Spalding keeper who punched her shot away and the shootout would continue to a seventh round. Spalding would again put the pressure on the Blue Jays by scoring just past a diving Davidson to take a 4-3 lead. It would all come down to Delaney Kaiser (Jefferson City, MO / Jefferson City) to extend the shootout but her shot was turned away by the keeper and the Golden Eagles would escape with a 4-3 penalty shootout victory and onto the SLIAC Tournament Semifinals.
The loss ends the Blue Jays season. It marks the end of the career of Blue Jay midfielder and captain Becca Bond (Midwest City, OK / Carl Albert). She will be missed. The Blue Jays however boast a young core that returns next season. While this loss hurts the future is bright for the Blue Jays.
