Aces to finish MVC Championship on Monday 

 University of Evansville freshman Diana Tkachenko will play for the Missouri Valley Conference Championship at #2 singles on Monday as the Purple Aces wrap up the Individual Championships on Monday at Wesselman Park.

In Sunday’s action, Tkachenko defeated Ting-Ya Hsu of Wichita State, 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the final match in the second flight.  She will face Marcia Tere-Apisah from Illinois State on Monday morning.

Chieko Yamada clinched fifth place at the top flight as she beat Ari Dechter of Bradley, 6-0, 6-3.  In flight five, Theodora Soldatou will have a chance to take third place on Monday as she will take on Valerija Gercar (Illinois State).  Soldatou opened play on Saturday with a win over UNI, but dropped her match against BU’s Malini Wijesinghe on Sunday, 7-5, 7-5.
Nicoli Pereira will also have a chance at a 3^rd place finish as she will play Savanna Hunt of UNI on Monday.  Pereira lost Sunday’s matchup against Missouri State’s Alexia Meyer, 6-4, 6-3.

Flight four singles featured Andrea Pascual-Larrinaga, who took 6^th place after falling to Alexa Brandt of the Braves, 6-4, 6-3.

All three doubles pairs for UE have a shot at third place in Monday’s final day.  At flight one, Tkachenko and Pereira face off against the Bears’ Alye Darter and Phoebe Boeschen.  Yamada and Soldatou face Illinois State’s Jana Kustkova and Jelena Karla Vujicic in the third place match of #2 doubles while Pentsova and Andjela Brguljan will take on Malini Wijesinghe and Alexa Brandt from Bradley in the third flight.

Monday’s action begins at 9 a.m. with championship doubles before singles play begins.  Singles action features the championship and third place matches.  Admission to the championships at Wesselman Park is free.

In one of the most hard fought and thrilling matches in program history, the 19^th-ranked University of Southern Indiana men’s soccer team fell short in overtime to top-ranked Rockhurst University, 2-1, Sunday afternoon at Strassweg Field. USI watched its record fall to 10-2-0 overall and 8-2-0 in the GLVC, while Rockhurst goes to 11-0-1, 9-0-1 GLVC.

The Screaming Eagles, who are off to the best start in program history, saw its school-record winning streak end at eight games.

The Hawks opened the scoring with a goal at 31:40 of the first half to lead 1-0 after it was the Eagles who had been the most dangerous offensively to begin the match. USI, which had the first three shots of the match, was robbed of a goal early when freshman forward Eric Ramirez (Vincennes, Indiana) had a shot cleared out of the goal by the Hawks defense after looping a shot over the goalkeeper.

After Rockhurst carried the 1-0 lead through the intermission, USI got onto the scoreboard at 64:54 when junior midfielder Kyle Richardville (Vincennes, Indiana) headed in the equalizer to tie the match, 1-1. Richardville was assisted on his seventh goal of the season by freshman defender Drew Albert (Eureka, Missouri).

Both squads would have chances late in the second half, but would come up short as the game went into overtime. Rockhurst wasted little getting the game-winner in the extra period, scoring the “sudden victory” goal a 92:15 off the head of Rockhurst forward Kaleb Jackson.

Following today’s match with Rockhurst, the Eagles hit the road for three-straight matches. USI will travel to Drury University October 14; Missouri University of Science & Technology October 16; and McKendree University October 21 on the longest road trip of the year.

Junior Taylor Howerton (Evansville, Indiana) and senior Allison Koester (Wadesville, Indiana) posted top-five finishes Sunday as the University of Southern Indiana women’s golf team finished first out of 10 teams at the Maryville Fall Invitational at Annbriar Golf Course

Howerton finished second in the 63-player field with a four-over par 148, including a one-over 73 in Sunday’s closing round. Koester was nine-over for the tournament after shooting 77 in the first 18 holes Saturday and 76 Sunday. University of Illinois Springfield senior Jocelyn Matsen was the tournament medalist with a one-under 143.

As a team, the Screaming Eagles shot 310 in both the first and second rounds as they earned their first win of the year with their two-day score of 620. Lindenwood University was second with a two-day tally of 621.

The Eagles return to action October 17-18 when they compete at the Big Apple Lady Invitational in White Plains, New York. USI concludes the fall season October 24-25 with the Trevecca Women’s Fall Invitational in Hickory, Tennessee.

Univ. of Southern Indiana Women’s Golf Results

10/8-9/2016 — Maryville Fall Invitational

Annbriar Golf Course — Waterloo, IL

Par 72, 5882 yards — 10 teams, 63 players

Southern Indiana………….. 310 310   620   +44      1st

Howerton, Taylor…………..  75  73   148    +4      2nd

Koester, Allison…………..  77  76   153    +9   t- 4th

Davis, Grace………………  80  81   161   +17   t-21st

Leighty, Abbey…………….  78  83   161   +17   t-21st

Jacobsen, Kori#……………  80  84   164   +20   t-26th

Ellerbusch, Paige………….  85  80   165   +21   t-29th

Zehner, Abbey#…………….  83  89   172   +28   t-45th

Bumpus, Holly#…………….  88  89   177   +33   t-53rd

Aces fall by 3-2 final on Saturday evening

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Rocio Fortuny put on an offensive show, notching 16 kills in a 5-set match that saw Indiana State defeat the University of Evansville volleyball team on Saturday evening by a 3-2 final at the Carson Center.

Fortuny led all players with her kill tally and also hit a team-best .310.  She was also one of five Purple Aces (4-16, 0-7 MVC) to finish in double figures in digs, posting 10.  Olivia Goldstein led the way in that category, totaling 17 digs.  Mildrelis Rodriguez had a solid night with 10 kills and 16 digs.  Rachel Tam added 9 kills and 15 digs.  Joselyn Coronel registered a team-best 23 assists.

Bree Spangler led the Sycamores (8-10, 2-4 MVC) with 14 kills while Kynedi Nalls posted 13.

Indiana State opened the evening with a 25-18 victory.  After taking a 6-1 advantage early on, the Sycamores extended their lead to 11 at 16-5.  Evansville never gave up and battled to the end.  They cut the deficit to five at 23-18 as Rocio Fortuny notched two kills, but the Sycamores were able to record the final two points to take the set.

Another early run saw the Sycamores score the first five points of the second game, but UE quickly fought back.  Erlicia Griffith notched a kill before a pair of block assists helped the Aces tie it up at 9-9.  Evansville grabbed its first lead at 12-11 on an Olivia Goldstein service ace.

UE went up 13-11, but the Sycamores made their way back to retake the lead at 19-18.  Evansville showed its resilience once again, recording the next four points before taking the 25-21 win as Fortuny notched six kills in the frame.

In the third game, ISU got off to a 4-0 start and never looked back, taking a 25-15 win.  Evansville had the upper hand to begin game four, jumping out to a 4-1 advantage.  After the Sycamores tied it up at 5-5, UE rattled off the next five tallies in a row and extended the lead to 18-11.  Up 23-17, the Aces were the victims of a pair of Sycamore service aces as they rallied back to get within three at 23-20, but Evansville finished off the game, winning 25-21

After falling behind 3-1 in the fifth set, the Aces took the lead at 4-3.  The Sycamores made their way back, taking an 8-6 advantage before UE had a run of its own, tying it up at 8 all.  Four in a row from ISU was the difference as they finished off the night with a 15-10 victory to clinch the match.

A trip to Missouri State awaits the Purple Aces on Monday night as they will face the Bears in a 7 p.m. match in Springfield.