Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s soccer team will be heading into its final two weeks of the regular season looking to find the formula that got them out to an early 5-2 start to the season, with the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament looming right around the corner.
After getting out to that solid start, the Governors have gone 2-3-3 in OVC play – including going winless in its last four matches and posting a 0-2-2 mark over that stretch – with a road game this week at Murray State on October 12th and a home contest at Morgan Brothers Field next week versus Morehead State on October 22nd left on the schedule.
Both the Govs offense and defense have seen struggles in performance during conference play, as they sit in sixth place in the OVC standings and a spot in the postseason still not locked down.
Offensively, in their first seven games the Govs were averaging 2.0 goals per game coming off 15.3 shots per game – of which 7.9 were on goal.
In their eight conference games, the Govs have seen their goals per games drop to 1.6 on an average of just 10 shots per game, with only 4.6 coming on goal.
That totals out to a 20 percent drop in scoring, a 35 percent drop in overall shots and a 42 percent drop in shots on goal per game. They have also seen a drop-in corner kicks of just under one per game in OVC play.
On defense, the Govs are allowing fewer overall shots per game in conference play (10.3 to 11.6), but are seeing opponents get 5.5 shots per game on goal in OVC play compared to just 3.3 before their OVC schedule and seeing goals given up per game increase to 1.6 from 1.0.
While some of the drop can be contributed to conference team’s familiarity with the Govs and keying on their leading scoring threat Kirstin Robertson the number of minutes played in conference matches may also be catching up with Robertson.
Prior to conference play, Robertson was averaging 73 minutes per game, while in OVC play that total has jumped to 85.8 minutes per game.
While her minutes are up her offensive chances have dropped, seeing her overall shots per game drop from 4.7 to 2.7 in OVC play and shots-on goal drop from 3.1 to 1.3.
With only two matches over the next weeks before the OVC Tournament, hopefully Robertson and the rest of the Govs can get their legs back, while also working on getting back to early-season form to make a deep run in the post season.
