April 17, 2004

Columbia, Mo. - Playing in their third game of the 2004 spring pre-season, the Missouri Tigers tied the Arkansas Lady'Backs 1-1. The stalemate brings the Tigers to 2-0-1 with one game remaining in the spring schedule.

Missouri once again started the game in attack mode as they repeatedly pressured and tested Arkansas' goalie, Carrie Dillsaver. Early on in the game Jennifer Nobis crossed a pass to Amber Swinehart, but the shot was stopped as Dillsaver made a diving save. Just a few minutes later, Nobis was again involved in the attack as Elyse Nikonchuk lofted a pas to Nobis whose header went just wide of the goal.

The Missouri pressure would finally pay off as Nobis lofted a pass to Kristen Heil who headed the ball past Dillsaver to give the Tigers the lead with 21:10 remaining in the first half. Arkansas would battle right back though as the Lady'Backs Julie Williford managed to chip a shot over MU's keeper, Kira Reyes with 19:35 left in the first half.

The Tigers started the second half again pressuring the Arkansas defense. With 38:50 remaining in the game, Nobis dribbled up the left side of the field and crossed a pass to Shea Swoboda, but the shot was again saved by Dillsaver.

In the closing minutes of the game Arkansas managed to put pressure on the Missouri defense. With 3:44 remaining Arkansas blasted a shot that was saved by Reyes, but the rebound went directly to another Arkansas player who blasted another shot, but defender Margaret Malm made a sliding save and cleared the ball to thwart another Arkansas scoring threat.

"I felt that we had very good possessions today, but we need to work on finishing better. We didn't have the edge that I would have liked to see, but we still have one game left and I'd like to finish strong," said Coach Bryan Blitz.