The Indiana State soccer team travelled to Valparaiso, Indiana on Friday night to take on the Crusaders in a non-conference matchup at Eastgate Field. The Sycamores continue to struggle on the road as they dropped their fourth straight road match, losing to Valpo 3-1.
In the first half, the Crusaders edged the Sycamores on shots 5-4 with two of them coming on goal against Indiana State netminder Rachel Rudzis. Valpo took a 1-0 lead when Ani Michl chipped in a shot to near post from the top of the 18-yard box. It was Michl's second career goal and first of the season.
The Crusaders had a chance to go up two goals on the Sycamores in the first half, but Rudzis came up with an unbelievable save in the 34th minute. A Valpo player slipped a thru ball into the box that Crusader Kendall Brown tried to finish but Rudzis made a spectacular diving save towards the far post to keep the game at 1-0 going into halftime.
The Sycamores came out hungry in the second half looking to tie the score. It didn't take long as Sarah Tretter found the back of the net in the 51st minute of play when she crossed the ball from the top of the box that fooled everyone and went into the far corner of the goal. It was Tretter's first career points.
Tretter nearly tacked on another goal shortly after in the 54th minute, but her shot ricocheted off the crossbar.
The game remained at a 1-1 stalemate until Valpo's Jessie White tallied her third goal of the season in the 68th minute when she knocked in a ball that was trickling around in front of the Sycamores six-yard box. Rudzis tried to punch away a Valpo cross, but didn't get enough on it as it landed just beyond the six and was tapped in by the Crusaders for the 2-1 lead.
Valpo's Michl got her second goal of the match and put the game away for the home team when she sent a high-arching shot from 20 yards out over Rudzis with under four minutes left to play. The Crusaders walked away with a 3-1 victory and upped their record to 6-4.
The Sycamores drop to 4-7 overall and will battle the Mastodons of IPFW next Tuesday before starting Missouri Valley Conference play on October 5th against Illinois State.
