The University of Missouri-Rolla Miners came to Missouri Southern digging for a win, but came up with a tie.

The Missouri Southern Lions faced stiff competition from the Miners, who have only beaten the Lions two times in the past seven meetings. Last season the Lions won, 8-2, at home. Later in the season, the team escaped with a 1-0 overtime win in Rolla. The overall record for the Lions facing the Miners is now 4-2-1. The score was tied after two overtimes, 1-1.

The Lions came off a close game Sept. 12, losing to the University of Nebraska-Omaha, 0-4. The first half score was 1-0 and played mostly on the Lions’ side of the field. The Mavericks out shot the Lions 15-2, in the second half and 25-5 overall. Southern entered the contest against UMR at 1-3 on the season.

“It was a tough game, with some real chippy areas and some fouls out there,” said Trevor Wachsman, head women’s soccer coach.

“We were able to stick with them and fight back.”

Wachsman said he thinks the team never gave up trying to shoot the ball into the goal. The Lions out shot the Miners 19-13. The first goal of the game came from Colleen Connors, forward, who was assisted by Danielle Lyman, midfielder, as she crossed and headed the ball into the goal. The shot came during the 51st minute; the second score came off a penalty kick by Tara Reisner in the 81st minute.

“We’re playing a new system this year, and the defense is really doing a great job of working with us and working out the kinks,” said Amber Phipps, senior midfielder. “I think with time we’re going to get it done.”

Wachsman said the mistakes he saw on the field were minor mistakes. He said the season is still young, and the team is still getting comfortable as a team.

“There really is no big mistakes out there,” he said. “If we could clean some things up, we’re fine. I’m happy with the results. It was a well-fought match, and we fought our way back into it.”

Wachsman said the way to fix the little mistakes is to work on repetition in practice.

The next game for the Lions will be Sept. 20 in South Dakota against North Dakota State.

Phipps said Wachsman does an “excellent job preparing us for the games.”

“Luckily, our bench and the rest of our team really work well together,” she said. “We don’t get down on each other. Everybody has been really positive.”

Wachsman said the team is trying to possess the ball more for future games to make it easier on themselves.