By Dylan Vazzano, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – For the fifth-consecutive Sunday, the Tennessee Tech soccer team will be in business in Cookeville, as the Golden Eagles host Western Illinois to seal the deal on another week of Ohio Valley Conference action. Tech's tangle with the league's newest member is scheduled to get going at 1 p.m. CT.
Admission to Tech Soccer Field is free of charge. The match will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Click here to watch. Live stats will also be available. Click here to view.
A look at Tennessee Tech
The last undefeated club in the OVC, the Golden Eagles (4-4-4, 3-0-1 OVC) enter Sunday's get-together on a six-match unbeaten streak that has seen the purple and gold outscore the competition 18-4 throughout the surge. After a 3-0 start to Tech's league ledger, the Golden Eagles played SIUE to a scoreless draw in TTU's last match Thursday evening in Edwardsville, Ill.
Tech's first nil-nil tie of the season saw Maggie Conrad pick up six stops to help guide the Golden Eagles to their third clean sheet in four conference affairs. Overall, the 5-foot-7 junior leads the OVC in save percentage behind a .829 to go along with a league-best 63 halts on the year. TTU's defense will head into Sunday's matchup with WIU having not allowed a first-half goal in seven-straight contests.
Offensively, even after being blanked Thursday night, the Golden Eagles still lead the OVC with 22 goals in 12 matches, six more than Little Rock's 16 scores in 13 tilts. Neve Renwick, Yao Giada Zhou and Bailey Taylor are still tied for the most goals in the league with four apiece, while Katie Toney's five assists are also still the most in the OVC. Renwick, who led Tech with three shots in Thursday evening's draw, is the conference leader in total attempts behind 40 tries.
Giada Zhou and Taylor still pace the league with 12 points thanks to identical four-goal and four-assist stat sheets.
TTU heads into Sunday armed with an unbeaten streak of 18-straight OVC regular-season matches, dating back to the beginning of October 2021.
A look at Western Illinois
Following three-straight ties to begin their Ohio Valley Conference tenure, the Leathernecks suffered their first conference loss of the year with a 1-0 home defeat to Southern Indiana on Thursday. Western's lone score surrendered occurred in the 40th minute on a Peyton Murphy penalty-kick goal.
The Leatherneck defense has been sharp in the early stages of the club's conference campaign, with Western allowing only two scores in four OVC matches. Offensively, WIU (2-5-4, 0-1-3 OVC) has split the pipes just once in the quartet of contests thanks to a Kayla Turner goal in the 45th minute of an eventual 1-1 draw at UT Martin on Oct. 1. Western's other two deadlocks during OVC play were scoreless knots at Morehead State on Sept. 24 and at home vs. Southeast Missouri on Sept. 21.
Turner is one of only fourth Leathernecks with a score this season, joining Sachiko Gamo, Alanna Pennington and Kelsi McThenia as WIU players who have found the back of the net. Gamo has one goal, while Pennington and McThenia have each tallied two scores.
Isabel Navas Rodriguez has started 10 of 11 matches between the pipes this year and is second in the conference in both goals against average (1.10) and save percentage (.820).
Inside the series
Sunday's meeting in Cookeville will mark the first-ever matchup in the all-time series between the two schools.
Photo by Jim Dillon
