Kearney, Neb. – Freshman Bella Spadavecchia scored in the 50th minute as Nebraska Kearney tied Rockhurst, 1-1, Friday afternoon at Cope Stadium.
This was the season-opener for both teams. In the early game, Fort Hays State scored four unanswered goals in the second half to beat William Jewell (Mo.), 5-2.
The RU Hawks went 8-6-4 last year and were picked sixth in the 15-team Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) preseason poll. Seven players made their Loper debut today as UNK outshot the Hawks by a 15-11 margin and had more than a few chances to be up 2-0 or 3-0 in the contest.
"There were a lot of awesome things about today and it was a great result for us. Obviously not the outcome we wanted, but we are so close in a lot of categories," said UNK head coach Rob Breton. "A simple mistake is the difference between a 1-0 win and a 1-1 draw. We showed up in the right moments when it was tough and handled the chaos."
Spadavecchia (Greenville, S.C.) won a 1v1 situation at 50:46 after a throw in by junior Chloe Edmunds (Boise, Idaho) deep in RU territory. Freshman Vanna Reitsma (Papillion) headed a ball that bounced between several Hawks with an attacking Aspen Steen (Commerce City, Colo.) having it ricochet off her. The ball found Spadavecchia behind the defense, and she went low left for her first collegiate goal.
On a hot afternoon, RU countered late as Julia Witt headed in a corner from Makayla Martinez in the 63rd minute. The goal bounced off the crossbar and snuck across the line. Keeper Sydney Schnarr made seven saves with junior Susie Bovaird (Lincoln) stopping six shots.
"We didn't give them a lot of good chances so a lot of progress there. We were on the front foot probably 70 minutes of that match," said Breton. "We wanted to see today how many times we could get into the box, how times we would create a shot and then how many of those would be on frame. Twenty-four times were in the box; 14 of those resulted in an opportunity or shot, and then five ended up with a shot on frame. It's about efficiency right now, but we have a lot of newcomers out there."
UNK faces WJC Sunday at 2 p.m. with Hays and RU battling at 11 a.m.
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