The OVC women’s soccer teams are heading into the second week of conference play, with most of the teams in the conference preparing to play their second and third conference matches. 

Only Murray State did not play a match last week against a conference opponent.

Of the eight teams that did play conference matches, Tennessee-Martin, Belmont and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville earned wins. 

Tennessee-Martin beat Austin Peay 1-0 in the conference opener for both teams. 

An early goal put the Skyhawks ahead, and goalkeeper Erica Myers only needed to make one save in the match. 

Belmont’s victory also was a 1-0 win, this time coming over Southeast Missouri. 

Where the goal in the Tennessee-Martin and Austin Peay match came early, the goal in Belmont’s win came in double-overtime. 

Maci Pekmezian netted the goal to give the Bruins the win. 

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville played Tennessee Tech in the highest-scoring match of the week, with the Cougars winning 4-3.

Tennessee Tech fell behind after two early goals from the Cougars, but then took a 3-2 lead into the second half, before the Cougars tied it on a goal from Lily Schnieders and got the win on an overtime goal Mackenzie Litzsinger, who now leads the conference with 5 goals. 

The only other conference match last week was between Eastern and Morehead State, which ended in a 1-1 tie. 

Eastern took a 1-0 lead in the first half on a goal from Jenna Little. The Eagles tied the score in the second half, but neither team could score through the rest of regulation and two overtime periods. 

Morehead State goalkeeper Michelle Jerantowski had eight saves and Eastern goalkeeper Faith Davies had seven. 

Heading into upcoming conference matches, Murray State leads the conference with 19 goals this season. 

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and Tennessee-Martin are tied for second in the conference with 13 goals apiece. 

Eastern’s 18 goals allowed are the most in the conference while Tennessee-Martin has allowed the fewest goals in the conference with 9. 

Southern Illinois-Edwardsville leads the conference with 124 shots and Tennessee Tech is last with 40 shots. 

Individually, Eastern goalkeeper Faith Davies leads the conference with 54 saves. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville goalkeeper Bella Henderson leads the OVC with a .857 save percentage. 

Litzsinger and Schnieders rank first and second in the conference in goals, scoring five and four times respectively. 

Murray State’s Hailey Cole and Morgan Bodker lead the conference in assists with 3 each. 

Adam Tumino can be reached at 581-2812 or ajtumino@eiu.edu.