No. 21 AU Women Earn Way Back Into Win Column At Home Vs. Arrows

On Saturday (Oct. 15) at home vs. Northwood, a late yielded penalty kick resulted in a 1-1 tie for Ashland University's women's soccer team.
 
Fast forward to Thursday (Oct. 20) night at Ferguson Field, and the No. 21-ranked Eagles held on late to finish off a 1-0 win over Ursuline.
 
Ashland moves to 12-3-1 overall and 10-1-1 in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, and is back in first place in the conference alone pending the result of Thursday night's Cedarville at Kentucky Wesleyan game.
 
"When you graduate 10, and you're in those situations last year, you have veteran leaders who know how to see out a game," said Ashland head coach Cayleb Paulino. "For this group, this is one of the few times that we've had them manage eight minutes of a game to win the game, and we just didn't do a very good job of it.
 
"We did a way better job of finding ways to win the game."
 
The Arrows are 6-6-2, 4-6-2.
 
Ashland is among teams under consideration for the NCAA Division II postseason out of the Midwest Region, as the first regional rankings of 2022 were revealed on Wednesday (Oct. 19).
 
WHAT HAPPENED

• Following a scoreless first half, the Eagles dented the scoreboard in the 64^th minute when sophomore forward McKinley Mendenhall's corner kick found senior forward Bailey Clark in front of the net. Clark's sixth goal of the year and Mendenhall's 11^th assist of 2022 (fifth-most in program history in a single season) put AU ahead, 1-0.
• "I think that's what happens in a game and in an environment like this where the game is pretty even, and what's the little bit of difference that's going to make a game-winning play," Paulino said.

 
THE WRAP-UP

• Senior goalkeeper Bri Rogers made five saves in recording her eighth shutout of the season and her 16^th in less than two seasons as an Eagle.
• "I have really good people in front of me," Rogers said. "They make me look good. It's just effort, effort plays from them, effort plays from the midfield."
• "The backs and Bri managed the difficult moments really, really well," Paulino said. "I thought Bri and the back four were making plays when they needed to."
• Ashland had a slim 13-12 shots advantage, but took all 10 corner kicks in the contest.

 
UP NEXT
The Eagles will play their last regular-season road game on Saturday (Oct. 22) at 1 p.m. at Findlay (9-4-2, 8-3-1). A potential Great Midwest regular-season title still is within reach.
 
"We've got to do us, play our game, and it will work out for us," Rogers said.