Terre Haute, Ind.—The Indiana State Sycamores fell in a heartbreaking overtime loss to the Illinois State Redbirds in tonight's Missouri Valley Conference Tournament semifinal in Normal, Ill.
Coming into the game as the underdogs, Indiana State (7-11-2) did not play that way right from the start.
The Sycamores sat in and put in one of their best defensive efforts of the entire season. Illinois State could not penetrate the backline. While the Redbirds had a total of 19 shots during the match only five of those were on goal.
Junior defender Kasey Wallace had an outstanding showing, leading the Indiana State defensive efforts blocking many shot attempts and even saving a ball on the goal line. Freshman goalkeeper Brianna Riscossa also tallied three saves during the game.
Indiana State was led offensively by senior Maddie Orf. Orf, a First Team All-MVC selection, took two shots during the match with one on goal. Many other Sycamores added to Indiana State's five shots with three on goal including Katie Wells, Pam Silies,Brice Bement, and Caitlin Glascott.
Regulation play proved to be physical with each team battling to try and put the ball in the back of the net. The Sycamores had a total of four fouls with the Redbirds adding an additional five.
With the score tied 0-0 at the end of regulation play each team took the field yet again to kick off for a ten minute golden goal overtime period.
The Sycamore continued to battle defensively throughout the overtime period. In the 98th minute of play the Redbirds had a corner kick that resulted in many blocked shots that continued to bounce around inside the box. Illinois State's Lauren Koehl broke out of the scrum and fired a shot from the six yard box that narrowly passed Sycamore defenders for a goal.
Despite this loss the 2016 Sycamores have etched their names in the record books as the first Indiana State team to make the MVC Conference Tournament since 2013.
