Oilers Host Panthers in Great Midwest Tournament Quarterfinals
The Game
The University of Findlay women's soccer team will take on Ohio Dominican University in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Women's Soccer Tournament on Saturday, Oct. 27 at 2:00 pm. The matchup with the fourth-seeded Oilers and fifth-seeded Panthers will take place at DeHaven Field on the campus of the University of Findlay.
Admission
Entry to the game will be as follows:
$10 for adults
$5 for students K-12
FREE for all college students with valid ID
FREE for children age 5 and under
Video Stream
Video streaming will be produced by University of Findlay TV (UFTV) and will be made available on the Great Midwest Digital Network. The contest can be watched online or can be streamed via Apple TV, Roku, AmazonFire TV, and Android TV by searching for the 'Great Midwest' channel.
Tournament Central
For all information regarding the Great Midwest Women's Soccer Championship, visit the page linked below.
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Head Coach Jimmy Walker
Coach Walker is in his first year as the head coach of the Oilers soccer program and took a team that had won just 12 games in the last three seasons to a double-digit win total, the first time Findlay has had ten or more wins in a season since 2007. The team's current win percentage of .733 is the highest at Findlay since 1996 (.875).
The Oilers (10-3-2, 9-3-2 G-MAC)
One year after being left out of the conference tournament, the only team at Findlay to not make their respective conference postseason, the Oilers have played with grit and fire in 2018 and have earned the right to host a quarterfinal matchup for just the third time in 11 years.
The Oilers opened the season with a 7-1-2 record through their first ten games, proving that this brand of Findlay soccer would be different than in years past. Facing the meat of their schedule in the month of October, the Oilers would go 3-2 in their final five games. Each of Findlay's three losses this season was by a single goal, including a 1-0, double-overtime loss to the back-to-back conference champion, Ohio Valley.
Young talent has made a major difference for the Oilers this year as freshman Olivia Frank and sophomore transfer Shannon Marsh have carried much of the load offensively. Frank ranks third on the team with four goals scored this season and is second with 20 shots on goal while Marsh has scored six goals and leads the team with five assists, 24 shots on goal, and 17 points.
With the success of those two new faces, one staple of Findlay women's soccer for the last four years has stepped up in 2018 and been key to the team's success. Senior captain Megan Kupetz had scored just five goals in her first three seasons at Findlay. In 2018, she has found the net seven times and has scored the game-winner on two occasions.
In the net, junior goalkeeper Anna Money has seen improvement as well as she is allowing just 0.76 goals per game after giving up 2.18 a season ago. Her saves are down from a season ago, 57 this season to 94 in 2017, but that is a credit to improved work by the Oilers' defense led by sophomore Ashley Zenker, sophomore Lindsey Ahbe, and junior Sierra Perry.
In 2017, Findlay recorded just a single yellow card for the entirety of the season. This year, the Oilers, playing with a chip on their shoulder, have 26 yellow cards and have proven time and again that their goal is to be as competitive as possible for the duration of the contest. Although this team enters as the fourth seed, we can count on Coach Walker and the Oilers to be a tough out for any opponent they face.
The Panthers (10-5-1, 9-4-1 G-MAC)
Ohio Dominican and Cedarville faced off on Tuesday, Oct. 23 for the right to head to Findlay and take on the Oilers as the fifth seed in the Great Midwest Tournament. ODU won that contest 2-1 in double-overtime and will be their second-consecutive postseason appearance. The Panthers show up with postseason experience as the 2017 team lost in penalty kicks in the conference championship a season ago and earned a spot in the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal.
The Panthers dropped their first game of the year but won five straight before their only matchup with Findlay this season. After a 2-1 loss to the Oilers, ODU went 1-2-1 in their next four matches before closing out the season with four wins in five tries.
Sophomore Samantha Buck is a difference maker for the team out of Columbus, Ohio as she has scored 11 goals and has five assists this season for a total of 27 points. Her goals are second in the conference while her six game-winning goals are best in the league and eighth-best in the country. Against the Oilers on Sep. 20, Buck took three shots and recorded an assist.
Outside of Buck, redshirt junior Becca Gordon is the team's next leading scorer at four goals this season while freshman Mari Silvestri has three goals. The rest of the players for ODU have all scored two or fewer goals this season.
In the net, senior Marissa Wierzbicki has more than 1,400 minutes played this season and is allowing 0.93 goals per contest. She has recorded 51 saves and has five shutouts to her credit.
Notes
- This will be Findlay's first postseason game since 2012 when the Oilers hosted Ferris State in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) quarterfinal. The Oilers lost that contest 2-1.
- In the ten seasons prior to 2018, the Oilers have made the postseason five times. Findlay has lost in the first round of the tournament in all five of those contests
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- 2012 | 2-1 loss vs Ferris St.
- 2010 | 4-0 loss at #10 Grand Valley St.
- 2009 | 2-1 loss at Northern Michigan
- 2008 | 3-0 loss at Saginaw Valley St.
- 2007 | 3-1 loss vs Northern Michigan
- There are eight teams competing in the conference tournament this weekend and of those eight, only two were not in the tournament field last season; Findlay and Davis & Elkins. Both teams won five more games in 2018 than they did in 2017.