WARRENBSBURG, Mo. – Minnesota State-Mankato scored three times within the first nine minutes of the second half to defeat Oklahoma Baptist 3-0 in the NCAA Tournament first round on Friday morning on the campus of Central Missouri.
OBU concluded its season with a 13-6-1 record.
Before the Mavericks scored their goals, it appeared the Bison would be in good shape to win their first-ever NCAA tourney match.
In the opening half, the green and gold out-shot the Mavericks 8-4. Early on, senior
Tori Kitchel and newcomer
Annie Louthan had on-target attempts. However, both were saved by MSUM's Mackenzie Rath, a player that brought the third-best save percentage in the country into the contest.
Hannah White also got into the offensive mix with a couple of attempts but one was stopped by Rath while the other went wide of the left post in the 21st minute. OBU had three more looks after that from
Katie Fowler,
Hannah Evans and Louthan but all of those went high.
Defensively, the Bison back line did a good job against the Maverick attack and leading scorer Jenny Vetter. In fact, there was just one on-target look for MSUM in the first. That came at 27:16 from Maille Mathis but her attempt on the left side was denied by
Ireland Jeffrey.
After the break, though, it was all Mavericks. Mankato controlled the possession and broke through in the 48th minute. Allie Williams chipped a pass to Olivia Thoen who fired about nine yards out by the left post. Less than four minutes later, Williams added another helper, this one to Vetter who sneaked a shot inside the right post.
Mankato added one more from Caitlin Brown at 53:49 for its final tally.
By game's end, each team had attempted 15 shots with five of those on goal.
It was the final match for OBU's seniors: Evans,
Keely Hampton, Kitchel,
Abigail Parker, White,
Kelsi Mensen and
Adison Henry. Over the last four seasons, that group helped the program attain a 46-20-6 record, the 2018 GAC Tournament title, the spring 2021 GAC regular-season title and this fall's tournament championship.
