COLUMBUS, Miss. – For a school season-record fifth time this season, the Mississippi University for Women men's soccer team forged a tie in a match, this time with a 3-3 draw at home versus Principia College, in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) match. But the tie did help the Owls (2-7-5, 1-2-3 SLIAC) maintain fifth place in the league standings in the race for a SLIAC post-season tournament bid.
 
The 2019 MUW team previously held the single-season mark for tied matches, with four.
 
It was a goal by Joseph Cumberland in the 80th minute that enabled MUW to avert a loss and grab the point for a draw in the standings, instead. Cumberland's goal was the difference in keeping the Panthers (3-8-1, 1-4-1 SLIAC) in eighth place or having them steal a win that would have created a three-team logjam for fifth in the SLIAC point totals.
 
It was also the first goal of the season for Cumberland, the senior from Gulf Port, Miss., and could not have come at a better time for the Owls. That's because Principia had scored a pair of unanswered goals in the 66th and 70th minutes to erase The W's 2-1 lead and, instead, vault ahead in the out, 3-2.
 
In the first half of play, the sum total of the offense for either team were a pair of penalty kick goals. MUW's Tres Ray netted the Owls' PK at the 5:46 juncture of the match and tied him for the team lead at four goals in 2023. Principia knotted the contest at 1-1 with a penalty kick goal of its own in the 42nd minute, as that score stood the balance of the half.
 
In the 54th minute of the match, MUW was able to retake the upper hand on a nifty goal by DJ McElroy. The play started with the Owls attacking on the right side and Cristian Canas sliding a perfect pass to speedster Mo Diallo streaking ahead. Diallo charged the right face of the goal. When PC goalie Torben Rehnert stepped toward him in an attempt to thwart the attack, Diallo instead tapped the ball to his left, were McElroy was on the spot to tally in the wide-open net and put The W up, 2-1 at that point.
 
MUW goalkeeper Zach Seymour finished the afternoon with exactly nine saves for his third-consecutive match.
 
The W will next host LaGrange College on Sunday (Oct. 15/4 p.m.) in a non-league match-up at the Roger Short Soccer Complex.