Aydogmus, Draguicevich Lead Top-Seeded Northwestern State to 1-0 Win over No. 5 SLU
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CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Northwestern State’s Olivia Draguicevich and Acelya Aydogmus proved that they deserved their Player and Goalkeeper of the Year honors, respectively, leading the top-seeded Lady Demons to a 1-0 victory over No. 5 Southeastern on Friday night at the Dr. Jack Dugan Family Soccer Stadium.
Draguicevich netted the game-winning goal in the 79
th minute, ending a scoreless stretch of 458:34 by Nadine Maher at the past two Southland Soccer Tournaments. A soaring throw-in from Caroline Hilliard went off the head of Kalee Williams to Draguicevich, who headed it home for her 13
th goal of the year.
On the other side of the field, Aydogmus made five saves on the night. She was required to make a trio of diving stops in the final half after not facing much action in the opening period. The clean sheet gives her 11 on the year and ties her for second on the Southland’s career shutouts leaderboard (26).
There was no shortage of early chances for the Lady Demons, who earned six corner kicks in the opening 15 minutes. However, the Lady Lion defense only surrendered one shot off the set-piece plays. NSU dominated possession by a 70-30 percent margin in the first half, and the Lady Demons spent three-quarters of that time in the attacking third.
The match nearly saw a scary moment with Lady Lion goalkeeper Nadine Maher slow to get up after a collision to make a save on Draguicevich, but the defending Southland Conference Tournament MVP got up and remained in the match. Maher ended the match with nine saves.