Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University forward Jada Backes, center, deflects a ball during a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference womens soccer game at Mattke Field in Marshall on Friday afternoon. The Mustangs tied with UMary 0-0 to pick up their first point of the season.

MARSHALL — Rachel Hicks and the Southwest Minnesota State University soccer team posted their first clean sheet of the season on Friday night as the Mustangs settled for a scoreless tie with UMary. The result gave the Mustangs their first point in the standings this year following an 0-5 start.

“My defense had a great game. A shutout is team-wide, not just goalkeeper-wide,” Hicks said. “We’re just doing the best that we can and if it gets all the way back to me, my job is to make sure it doesn’t go in the net, so just trying my best to get that accomplished.”

Hicks finished with 10 saves in goal while another SMSU defender slid in the way of UMary’s only other shot on goal, keeping the Marauders scoreless. Seven of the team’s 11 saves came in the second half.

Hicks’ 10 saves were her second-highest mark of the season after she finished with 13 in a 3-0 road loss to West Florida on Sept. 6.

“That’s what we expect of her. We see her at practice every day, so when she performs like that, I’m not surprised,” SMSU head coach Clay Glasgow said. “When she doesn’t perform like that, then we’re surprised. But overall, great performance from her leading from the back. Yes, you see the saves, but most important is the communication aspect of it… Just being able to keep us organized and talking. She’s the backbone of the team.”

Heading into the match, UMary was 4-1-0 on the season with four straight wins. The Marauders had scored three or more goals in three of those four victories. SMSU, on the other hand, was riding a four-match losing streak with their opponent scoring at least three goals in four of those five matches. Still, the Mustang defense put it all together on Friday to buck the trend for both teams.

“We always talk about keeping the ball, keeping possession, especially with our players high up on the field, but our mid [fielders] did a really good job today of finding the forwards,” Glasgow said. “The forwards did a really good job of making runs behind through balls, so it wasn’t only holding the ball for us, but providing opportunities in terms of the final third runs.”

SMSU did control the ball better than they had in previous games but still struggled. In terms of positives, they spent 48% of their time of possession in the attacking half of the field. In terms of the negatives, they were limited to 42% time of possession and fired off three shots, two of which were on target.

UMary, on the other hand, spent 36% of their time of possession in the attacking quarter of the field. They fired off 18 shots, 11 of which were on target, and earned 19 corner kicks to SMSU’s one. Still, the Mustang defense kept the Marauders off the board.

“Defensively, they did a great job too because we got to track back with the other team’s outside backs, with the center backs, so on both sides of the ball they [SMSU] did a really, really good job,” Glasgow said.

SMSU’s two shots on goal came from Dare Kroeten and Jada Backes. The latter’s shot came in the 89th minute when she dribbled the ball rapidly down the right hash marks. She fired a shot on goal that Molly Fischer was able to bat down. Brooke Wetterstrom tried to recover the rebound for the putback opportunity but Fischer recovered the ball and cleared it out to midfield, effectively sealing the game’s result as a draw.

Fischer finished with two saves in her clean sheet for UMary. On the offensive side, Rachel Gensch led the Marauders with three shots on goal while Olivia Gardner and MaLiah Burke each got off another pair.

Now 0-5-1, SMSU moves into a tie with Minot State for 12th place in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference standings, putting them ahead of Winona State, Minnesota State University-Moorhead, and Sioux Falls. 

“A tie is better than a loss, but we’re going for wins,” Hicks said. “I think there’s a lot we could take out of today. Our defense had a good game, but I think we had a lot of offensive chances and that’s what we need to get going in the back of the net. I think we just need to keep building off it and hopefully can score some goals next game.”

The Mustangs will have the opportunity to break that tie on Sunday when they host Minot State at 1 p.m. SMSU defeated the Beavers 2-0 in North Dakota last season, but at 3-10 all-time, this would be SMSU’s first time picking up consecutive wins over Minot State if they can pull out the victory.

Between the end of Friday’s game and the start of Sunday’s, Glasgow said his message to the team was to focus on taking care of their bodies, whether it was nutrition, rest or recovery. He added that he was proud of his team’s increased effort on Friday and said that its energy will be key to the team creating more opportunities.