ETSU women’s soccer returned to their home stadium after 23 days to battle Tennessee Tech to a 0-0 tie.

“I thought they were the most organized team we’ve played all year,” said head coach Jay Yelton. “They did a really good job with keeping us out of our game plan and kept us from executing the way we wanted to execute. They were a team that caused us a lot of trouble just by being organized.”

After a long, rough game the final score was 0-0 and went to two overtime periods.

“Because we didn’t commit buddy to buddy 100 percent. We were letting them have the ball and react to that. To be honest, I didn’t get the chance to feel that physical-ness from them. They were more technical, passing and moving the ball around, and finding spaces,” said sophomore Sinoxolo Cesane (Capetown, South Africa).

Freshman Shu Ohba (Fujisawa, Japan) protected the goal phenomenally with a career high of nine saves.

“She has been fantastic and very dependable for us,” Yelton said. “Obviously her international experience shows up and not only that, her distribution, her ability to make long range passes and get it right to the zones that are open is a huge key for success. We’re very thankful that she’s here and doing a good job.”

“We show some family relationship on the field and off the field,” Cesane commented on the teamwork. “It all starts off the field, taking care of each other and when we’re taking it to the field it goes without saying, we play as a team, we play as a family. We don’t blame each other, we just do it together. it’s not an individual situation it’s a team situation that we find ourselves in.”

The team takes on the Citadel at home on Friday, Sept. 24, in Summers-Taylor Stadium. This will be the first in-conference game of the season.

“The Citadel is a very physical team, they always come with a game plan,” said Yelton about the Citadel’s similar playing style to Tennessee Tech. “I think mostly just move the ball faster, then the defense can get there. Stay out of those physical confrontations, we’ll work this week on our finishing patterns.”

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