By Joseph Bernard, Sports Editor

On their senior day, The SIU women’s soccer team (2-2), earned their second win in a row over Purdue Fort Wayne (2-2-2) early Sunday afternoon. The win marks just the second such occurrence in the team’s short history of back-to-back wins and the Salukis are back to performing at a .500 level.

The win came from a lot of help from the substitutes, as only one out of the six shots on goal for the Salukis came from one of the starters. Solo goals from junior McKinley Stiff and senior Kaitlin Ducharme helped power the win for SIU. Senior Goalie Maddy Alaluf also tallied three saves off four shots on goal to help preserve the Salukis win.

A slow first 10 minutes with only one shot wasn’t enough right away for the Salukis as the Mastodons took the early lead off a goal in the 13th minute. Trying to get the Salukis back into it, shots by senior Paris Walsh and sophomore Hannah Elkebir were both saved by PFW. A corner kick laid out the perfect opportunity for Stiff to tie things up with a shot landing into the net.

With things all tied up again at 1-1, the second half was sure to be interesting. An offsides call on Purdue helped set up Ducharme’s goal a minute later to take the 2-1 lead in the 57th minute. Now all that was to be done is preserve that lead.

Alaluf did just that by saving one more shot in the 77th minute. The Saluki offense acted as the defense by keeping it out of Purdue’s possession, and the Dawgs hung on for the 2-1 victory over Purdue Fort Wayne.

The Salukis will look to make it their longest winning streak ever with a third win in their next outing against neighbor school Southern Illinois Edwardsville this Thursday, Sept 8 with a 6 p.m start. The game will be the last of their three-game homestand.

Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on twitter @Jojobernard2001. 

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