SIOUX FALLS—
Lindsey Power and
Jackie Montes scored goals in the final 11 minutes to lift the University of Sioux Falls Women's Soccer Team (5-10-2, 4-8-2 NSIC) to a 3-1 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) victory over Upper Iowa (3-12-2, 2-10-2 NSIC) on a sunny Friday afternoon at the USF Soccer Complex..
With the win, USF improved to 4-5-2 over their last 11 contests and moved past Wayne State for sole possession of 11
th place in the NSIC standings. USF tied the 2017 squad for five wins in a season, which is the most in the NCAA DII era (since 2012). In addition, the Cougars won for the first time in their series with Upper Iowa, which had won the previous six matches.
USF also tied the school mark for league wins with four and matched the total of a year ago. The Cougars will have an opportunity to better both marks as they face Winona State on Sunday (Oct. 28) in the regular season finale in Winona, Minn., at 1 p.m. With the victory the Cougars finished 4-4-2 at home and scored three or more goals for the second time this season.
Seniors
Emma Trittin, Montes,
Chessa Novotny,
Ellie Rieder and
Kori Fink started and played in their final home match at USF. Each of the seniors contributed to the victory, particularly Novotny and Montes, who stepped up with crucial goals.
Novotny opened the scoring with an unassisted goal on a penalty kick at the 3:15 mark. It was Novotny's second goal of the season and sixth of her career.
At the 54:29 mark, UIU tied the game when Katie Samuel scored her fifth goal of the season with an unassisted score off a free kick from outside the box. From that point, the teams battled defensively for 25 minutes until the Cougars rallied late.
At the 79:15 mark, USF sophomore
Lindsey Power hammered in her fourth goal off a free kick from just outside the box for a 2-1 lead. Just seven minutes later at 86:29, Montes, who totaled six shots on the day, capped her home career by scoring her second goal of the season on a header off a cross from junior
Lauren LaFavre from five yards away. For Montes, it was the fifth goal of her career.
The USF offense kept the Upper Iowa defense on their toes the entire game and logged 22 total shots with 13 on-goal. Also for USF, freshman
Aundria Vargas took four total shots in the match and had two on goal.
Junior goalkeeper
Brayden Paul continued her steady play in the net by registering three saves on four shot attempts. .