Women's Soccer And JMU Play To Scoreless Draw

NORFOLK, Va. – In a battle between two of the top defenses in Sun Belt Conference Women's Soccer, Old Dominion and James Madison played to a scoreless draw on Sunday night.
 
Both teams came into the contest having streaks of holding their opponent scoreless for nearly 500 minutes each. JMU's run was 492:09 minutes, while ODU started the season with a school record streak of 508:49.
 
"JMU is a quality side and in the first half we just couldn't get close enough to them to get any real possession and momentum. Second half I felt we really stepped up and put them under real pressure for long spells," said ODU Head Coach Angie Hind. "We had a lot of the ball in the final third, but they are a team that doesn't lose many goals and tonight showed why. We just couldn't connect on the final ball to score."
 
In the opening half, James Madison (6-2-6, 3-0-3) controlled the tempo and held a 4-3 advantage in shots and 2-0 advantage in corner kicks. Old Dominion (9-1-3, 4-1-1) held firm and kept the Dukes out of the net.
 
The second half saw Old Dominion come out and hold the advantage in possession. ODU forced several opportunities that saw JMU goalie Alexandra Blom make seven saves in the second half.
 
One of their best opportunities came midway in the half after a yellow card on Blom gave the Monarchs a free kick. Rhea Kijowski's shot was stopped by Blom and then a follow up from Riley Mullen went high at the 60 minute mark.
 
In the final 45 minutes, the Monarchs peppered the net with an 11-4 shot advantage to end the night 14-8 in their favor. ODU had the only four corner kicks of the second half to end with a 4-2 advantage.
 
JMU had one last blast with 40 seconds left as Jordan Yang sent a rocket that hit the crossbar and a follow shot by Amanda Attanasi turned into the lone save of the night for Emily Bredek.
 
With her eighth shutout of the year, Bredek breaks a time with Tonya Dedmond for third place on the single season shutout list with eight. The record is nine by Kasey Perry in 2021 and Lauren Tupman in 2008.
 
" I thought this was a fantastic game of soccer and the atmosphere matched that from the crowd," Hind said. "I am immensely proud of how we played tonight, especially in the second half. Against a quality team, this was a point gained not two lost for sure. "
 
The draw extends ODU's unbeaten streak to four as the Monarchs will return to the home pitch Friday night to face App State at 6 p.m.