Lady Miners fall in the rain to start year

Melia Miller

The start of the 2007 season for the Lady Miners was delayed by rain, then a late rally effort fell short for UMR as it dropped a 3-1 decision Friday to Ashland at the UMR Soccer Field.

Severe thunderstorms that dropped nearly two inches of rain in the Rolla area Friday afternoon held up the start of the game for two hours, but the Lady Miners had a solid first half of play as they outshot the Eagles 10-9 and had a couple of good scoring opportunites.

However, it was Ashland's Beth Moor who came up with the only goal in the first 45 minutes as she took a cross from Courtney Schuster and put it past Kelsey Kurilla to give the Eagles a 1-0 halftime lead.

The game stayed that way well into the second half, which was played in a steady rain, until Kelly Usher pounced on a rebound of her own shot that was stopped by UMR goalkeeper Catherine Swift (who entered the contest at the start of the second half) and scored with just under 15 minutes to play to extend the lead.

UMR cut that lead in half thanks to a great individual effort by freshman midfielder Melia Miller. She took a feed from Brooke Ryan and dribbled past two Eagles to get free for a shot, which she hit past Marie Supanich with 6:01 to go.

But after making a brief surge in an effort to tie the game, the Eagles were able to put the game away when Dani Lamb got to a ball that got by Swift near the front of the penalty area and scored into an open net for the final score.

The Lady Miners outshot the Eagles 17-16 in the game. Kurilla and Swift combined to make eight saves on the nght.

UMR will host Missouri Western (0-1) Sunday at 2 p.m. The men's game between UMR and Ashland that was slated for Friday night was moved to Saturday at 1 p.m. at the UMR Soccer Field.