ELSAH, Ill. – The bad news for the Mississippi University for Women women's soccer team is that its season-opening win streak came to an end at two. The good news for the Owls (2-0-1) is that they still have a three-match unbeaten skein after tying Principia College (1-0-2), 1-1, on the road.
 
The Owls dominated the statistics and field position versus their future conference mates. MU out-shot the Panthers by a 16-5 margin - 5-3 for shots on-frame – and was up 5-1 in corner kicks, spending most of the contest in the Panthers' defensive half.
 
The W did avert a potential disaster in the fourth minute. PC made an incursion into the Owls' defense and MUW goalkeeper Olivia Clark came off her line in an attempt to snare the ball. The Panther attacker, instead, slide the ball off to a teammate whose open-net shot went wide left.
 
It wasn't until the 43rd minute that MUW's Lizzie Truelock broke the scoreless deadlock wither first goal of the season. The assist went to Adriana Parsons, as The W took the 1-0 lead into the halftime locker room.
 
Neither team was able to convert for the first 30 minutes of the second period, until the Panthers got a goal that was more about an MUW miscue than a PC attack. Principia's Kannon Gill took a shot that had moderate pace and Clark appeared to easily make the save. However, the ball slipped out of Clark's hands and trickled across the goal line to knot matters at 1-1 in the 76th minute.
 
"We fought hard for 90 minutes but made mistakes that we should not have," Owls' Head Coach Catie Lyles said. "This is a great time to learn what we have to fix and continue to get better. We will take the draw and move on to tomorrow.
 
Molly Moore led the Owls with three shot attempts. Truelock, Parsons, Loren Winters and Shelby Harrington each had a pair of shots.
 
Clark had two saves in The W nets.
 
The Owls will try to return to their winning ways tomorrow (Fri., Sept. 9) by taking on Blackburn College – another SLIAC member – at 3 p.m. in Carlinville, Ill.