More than 18 months ago, Minnesota State women's soccer player Maille Mathis tore her ACL and underwent surgery. She rehabbed diligently while sitting out the 2023 season and returned to the squad this year. On Friday, she admitted she may not be 100% healed, but showed she's most of the way back by scoring the winning goal in a 2-1 victory over St. Cloud State at The Pitch. The triumph came in the first round of the NCAA Division II Central Region Tournament and advances the Mavericks to the quarterfinals of the regional. "I've had a few setbacks but it feels pretty good right now," Mathis said after the match. "I'm sure it will continue to get better." Mathis' goal was a bang-bang-bang play which started near midfield on the left side of the pitch. Addison Clarey brought the ball up along the sideline, delivered a perfectly-timed pass to Maddix Archer who in turn sent the ball over to Mathis. Without breaking stride, Mathis quickly shot the ball into the upper-left quadrant of the net for the game-winner at the 59:18 mark. "We're getting to know each other pretty well by now," Mathis said of her teammates. "We have a feel where each of us is going to at any given time." St. Cloud dominated action in the first 10 minutes of the game, outshooting the Mavericks 4-0 and rarely letting the ball outside the MSU zone. The Mavericks withstood the blitz until the 14:46 mark, when SCSU's Grace Olson converted a free kick that appeared to glance off a defender and into the net. The 1-0 lead stood until halftime. "We know there's usually going to be a 10-20 minute span when our opponents take their best shot and that's usually at the beginning of the game," MSU coach Brian Bahl said. "We held on until halftime when we were able to make a couple of adjustments and came out a lot more aggressive." After applying constant pressure to start the second frame, the Mavericks evened things up when Archer took a straight-on shot that goalie Meriel Orham was able to stop but not able to hang on to. When the ball popped out of her hands, a hard-charging Clarey was there to clean it up and slide the ball into the net to tie the game at 53:21. "When the ball came out I just pounced on it," Clarey said. Six minutes later, Mathis scored the game-winner and MSU held on for the win. St. Cloud had a handful of opportunities in the second frame, but Mavericks' goalie Clare Longueville and the rest of the defense thwarted all of them. MSU was outshot 12-9 for the game. The decision improves MSU to 15-1-6 and ends SCSU's season at 11-4-5. The Mavericks, the No. 2 seed, are in quarterfinal action at 1 p.m. Sunday at The Pitch with a game against No. 3 seed Northwest Missouri State. NWMSU advanced with a 2-1 win over Concordia-St. Paul Saturday morning.
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