Box Score Kearney, Neb. – Senior Kristyn Otter in the 68th minute to help Nebraska-Kearney beat Northwest Missouri State, 1-0, Sunday afternoon at Ron & Carol Cope Stadium at Foster Field.
 
The win helps the Lopers (4-7-1, 1-4-0) pick up three points in the MIAA standings. Meanwhile, the Bearcats fall to 4-6-1 (2-3-0).
 
UNK had a good chance to score in the first half but a shot taken by Colorado sophomore Shannon Duff banged off the crossbar in the 19th minute. Late in the half, junior keeper Ashley Malloy stopped a shot taken by Holdrege junior Marika Van Brocklin.
 
The 'Cats had to turn to backup keeper Jamie Neal in the second half. The sophomore made a nice save right away, blocking a shot in the box from Omaha freshman Megan Merkel.
 
About 11 minutes later, however, Neal wasn't as fortunate. She came to the corner of the net in an attempt to catch a high cross taken by Colorado sophomore Micheala Hoffman.
 
Instead, the ball got past her, hit off Norfolk senior Evie Sintek with Otter (Millard North H.S.) finally knocking the loose ball in for her third career goal.
 
"Michaela did a great job of getting to the end line and crossing the ball. That's one of her strengths. She's a runner and can beat people and put the ball in the box," said UNK head coach John Maessner. "The keeper came out, misread it and let it go through her hands and cross the goal. We had two players right there."
 
Northwest outshot UNK by four, 8-4, with Kearney redshirt freshman Allie Prososki making three saves. Her final one came in the 72nd minute but she and the Loper defense had to sweat out the final few seconds.
 
A corner taken by Ashley Cole at 89:48 ended up in the box and hit off several players. However, Northwest never got a shot off.
 
"The players deserved it. We've played well enough to win a bunch of our matches but it hasn't gone our way. It's nice to win one where things go your way a little bit," said Maessner. "It wasn't a great game for us. There were moments where we did a lot of good things. There so many things we can get better at and clean up, especially in the final third."
 
Finally, four Lopers went all 90 minutes, including Van Brocklin and sophomore Tori Weber (Lincoln S.E.).
 
UNK has a quick turnaround this week as they are at Missouri Southern State (3-7-1, 0-5-0) Thursday night and Southwest Baptist (0-11-0, 0-5-0) Saturday afternoon.