Storm draw with Wartburg in A-R-C opener

INDIANOLA, Iowa -- An 86th-minute goal from Lizzie Arnburg brought the Simpson women's soccer team to a 2-2 tie with Wartburg on Saturday in a double-overtime thriller to begin American Rivers Conference play.

In the first A-R-C match for either team in 2019, the Storm moved its overall record to 6-0-4 to remain unbeaten so far this season and broke a 10-game losing skid to Wartburg (6-1-2, 0-0-1 American Rivers) in the process.

With the game sitting at 2-1, Arnburg provided her second goal of the year to keep the team's hopes alive as the clock was ticking closer to zero. Arnburg corralled a loose ball and sent it over Wartburg's keeper.

Simpson took an early 1-0 lead at the 13th-minute mark coming on a goal by Jessica Payne. Payne was able to get her foot on the ball off a deflection from Cami Schmalz.

The team's defense held tough through the 59 minutes of play, but lost the shutout when the Knights pushed a goal into the net in the 60th. Several minutes later the visitors would grab the lead with a goal in the 71st.

While the game was still sitting at 1-0 in favor of Simpson, Wartburg had a good chance to put one past Rachel Neumann in goal. The Knights had a penalty kick, but Neumann used her quickness and instincts to save the ball from crossing the line and kept the game in favor of Simpson.

Despite the score, the shots were heavily in favor of the Knights, which produced 20 attempts and limited the Storm to just four in the 110-minute match.

Neumann tallied seven saves during the contest, tying her season best from two games ago against Knox.

Notes
• This is the third-time all season the team has only tallied one corner kick and are 2-0-1 in such games.
• Of Simpson's four shots, three were on target and two came from the boot of Arnburg.
• For the first time in four games, the Storm have scored against Wartburg after being outscored 5-0 in last year's loss to the Knights.
• It took until game three of conference play a year ago for Simpson to get a positive result and snapped a four-game losing streak to conference opponents.

Comments from Coach Reinert
"I'm so proud of the group effort we put on display tonight. We knew how potent their attacking group was going to be and that we needed to be confident in ourselves enough to attack them.

Several players fought through injury, several stepped up when others were forced out, so to earn a result and point against a talented and well-coached Wartburg team, it's a tremendous start to our conference season."

Up Next
Simpson remains home on Wednesday as Monmouth visits for a nonconference clash. The match will start at 7 p.m.