Oct. 23, 2005

Box Score

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Samford University soccer team earned its third-consecutive Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title on Sunday as the Bulldogs defeated the Austin Peay Lady Govs, 4-1, and Eastern Illinois fought to a 0-0 draw against Murray State.

Samford (12-3-2, 7-2 OVC), which needed Eastern Illinois to either lose or tie on Sunday, concluded its conference season with 21 points, while EIU finished second in the league with 20. Austin Peay (9-8, 5-4 OVC) concluded the year as the fifth-place team in conference.

"I'm extremely proud of this group of ladies," said Samford head coach Todd Yelton. "We've had to deal with our share of adversity this season, but they've done a great job of focusing on the task at hand and they've turned the conference season into a huge success."

The Bulldogs' Heather Birdsell scored a pair of first-half goals to give Samford an early 2-0 lead.

Birdsell, a sophomore from Plano, Texas, is ranked second in the OVC in goals scored (7) and leads the Bulldogs with 19 points this season. Her first goal of the match occurred at 7:18 and was set up neatly by Kim Matthews. The second score came off a 25-yard direct kick that she snuck past the goalkeeper into the bottom-left corner of the goal.

"Heather is an extremely dangerous player," Yelton said. "Any time that she gets the ball, she is a threat to put it in the back of the net, and I think that a great thing about our team is that there are five or six players that can do that. Game-in and game-out it's somebody different that's coming up with the key plays for us."

Samford extended its lead to 3-0 early in the second half as Matthews scored her fifth goal of the season.

On the play, Matthews gathered a cross-field centering pass from Sharon Young and beat Austin Peay's goalkeeper Sarah Broadbent with a 15-yard shot top shelf. Young earned an assist on the play, her second of the season.

The Bulldogs scored their fourth goal of the contest during the 67th minute. Cassie Applegate, a sophomore from Zionsville, Ind., headed in the score off a pass from Rebecca Bohler. The goal occurred after a set piece from a corner kick and was Applegate's first of her collegiate career.

With the assist, Bohler improved her OVC-leading total to eight on the season. In only her second season at Samford, she is already ranked sixth on the all-time assist list with 13.

Austin Peay tacked on a goal with exactly 10 minutes remaining in the match.

Freshman Ashley Beck earned the score, her sixth of the season. The Lady Govs attempted seven shots in the contest, five of which were on goal. Melissa Aquino was credited with the assist on Beck's goal.

Samford won four-straight OVC matches to close out its regular-season conference schedule. Three of its four wins came against teams that qualified for the OVC Tournament.

Since dropping a 1-0 decision versus Murray State on Oct. 9, the Bulldogs have reeled off consecutive wins against Eastern Illinois, 1-0, Southeast Missouri, 3-1, Tennessee Tech, 2-1, and Austin Peay, 4-1.

"Since our tough loss to Murray State, I think that the character and attitude of this team has really come together and we're playing some of our best soccer right now," said Yelton. "I think that we're really starting to gel as a team and we're peaking at the right time of the year."

Samford joined the OVC in 2003 and has won three-consecutive regular-season titles. The Bulldogs have compiled a 21-4 conference record over the last three years and have advanced to the championship game of the OVC Tournament twice.

"I'm happy for our team and we're excited, but we've been through this before," Yelton said. "We've done it the last two years as well, but the main goal for this group of ladies is to win the OVC Tournament and to advance to the NCAA Tournament."

The Bulldogs will open play in the 2005 OVC Tournament on Nov. 4, on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, Ill. Samford will be the top-seeded team in the four-team field and will play the winner of Murray State and Austin Peay. The play-in games will be held on Nov. 1.

The Samford University soccer team will next be in action on Tuesday as the Bulldogs travel across town to face their intra-city rival Birmingham-Southern Panthers at 7 p.m., at the BSC Soccer Park.

Samford (12-3-2, 7-2) def. Austin Peay (9-8, 5-4), 4-1

SAM 2 2 - 4
APSU 0 1 - 1

Scoring: SAM, Heather Birdsell (6) 7:18 (assist Kim Matthews), Birdsell (7) 23:17 (unassisted), Kim Matthews (5) 52:38 (assist Sharon Young), Cassie Applegate (1) 66:42 (assist Sharon Young); APSU, Ashley Beck (6) 80:00 (assist Melissa Aquino).
Saves: SAM, Cayley Winters 3, Emily Morris 1; APSU, Sarah Broadbent 5, Team 2.
Yellow Cards: SAM, Jessika Mejia 79:19, Sara Geiger 89:38.