The women’s soccer team played to a stalemate on Saturday, Oct. 9, against the West Virginia University Tech Golden Bears, 1-1. The draw is the first of the season for the Pioneers and leaves their record at 5-6-1 with a River State Conference (RSC) record of 4-1-1. The draw leaves the Pioneers in 4th place in the RSC, putting them in playoff position with five more games left in their regular season.

“Our mindset headed into the final three weeks of the season is no let downs and coming out and proving that we deserve to win,” senior forward Nola McGuire said. “We’re here to show the talent this team actually has.”

The Pioneers came into West Virginia on Saturday with a win in the back of their minds, after defeating Indiana University Kokomo last week 2-1 and were looking for similar results against the Golden Bears. The first half was an extremely even match up, with neither team being able to score, and both sides only landing one shot on net. Neither team could seem to find the back of the net, and it took until in the 55th minute in the second half for either team to score.

The Golden Bears would be the ones to strike first, scoring off a corner kick to give WVU Tech a 1-0 lead. Point Park would stay in the game though, taking shot after shot after the Golden Bears’ goal and would finally capitalize in the 82nd minute. With less than eight minutes to go in regulation, senior middle Kelsee McHugh, who had been subbed in at the start of the second half, came through with an unassisted goal to tie the game at one a piece. In the last few minutes of the game, both sides were able to attempt some dangerous shots that were saved by each team’s goalkeeper, and the game headed to overtime.

The first and second overtimes were a much more defensive battle, with WVU Tech taking 5 shots while only landing 2, with Point Park only taking 2 shots while only landing a single shot on the net. Neither team could seem to find the back of the net, and with double overtime complete, the game ended at a 1-1 draw. The game finished with both sides taking 12 shots each, with the Golden Bears landing 7 shots on net in comparison to Point Park’s 4. Freshmen forwards TaMaya Wolford and Madison Spencer led the team in shots with 3, landing 2 on net, while sophomore goalkeeper Ella Serlin saved 6 of the 7 shots she faced in the game.

After Saturday’s game, the Pioneers will now look to make a final push on their season with only three weeks left of the regular season. With the game on Thursday, Oct. 14 being postponed against Ohio Christian University, the Pioneers next game will take place on Saturday, Oct.16 against the University of Rio Grande. The match will be at 5 p.m. in Rio Grande, Ohio. The final game of their road trip will take place the following Saturday, on Oct. 23, with a game against Midway University in Midway, Kentucky. All of these matches will be against RSC in-conference teams as the Pioneers will look to rise up the standings as their season comes to a close.