ARKADELPHIA – The Ouachita women's soccer team erased a two-score first-half deficit with a second-half rally leading to an eventual 3-3 draw against Southern Nazarene on Wednesday at home.
The Tigers move to 8-1-7 overall and 5-1-4 in Great American Conference games and hold on to their first-place spot in the league standings heading into the final two games of the regular season. SNU moves to 8-3-4 and 4-2-3.
SNU's Natalie Montanez scored twice in the first half to give the Crimson Storm a 2-0 lead at halftime. Both of her goals looked similar with high shots to the center of the net just out of the reach of Ouachita goalkeeper
Michele Snow who had not given up a goal in five straight games heading into Wednesday's contest.
The Tigers rallied back in the second half to take a 3-2 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining in regulation on goals from
Gracen Turner in the 60th minute,
Reese Brown in the 73rd, and
Fernanda Valencia in the 80th. Brown's goal equalized the score at 2-2, while Valencia's put the Tigers up by one. However, SNU took advantage of a high-bouncing ball inside the box for a header goal in the 89th minute for the final score of the contest.
Turner's goal was her third of the season and 13th of her career, and it was set up by
Hattie Gardner's pass that was spilled out by the SNU goalkeeper. It was Gardner's second assist of her freshman campaign. Speaking of freshman,
Reese Brown had points in Ouachita's next two goals, scoring her second goal of the season as the equalizer and then getting an assist on Valencia's go-ahead goal. It was Brown's first career assist. For Valencia, it was her fourth goal of the season and eighth of her Ouachita career.
Ouachita held a 17-10 lead in total shots, a 4-3 lead in shots on goal, and a 7-1 lead in corner kicks.
The Tigers are now set for their final home game of the regular season this Saturday at 11 a.m. when they host Oklahoma Baptist. The Bison represent Ouachita's only loss of the season, a 2-0 setback in Shawnee on October 5. OKBU enters the game just two points behind Ouachita in the GAC standings with a record of 6-7-2 and 5-2-2.
