MARTIN, Tenn. – Sending an affirmative message that the 2021 edition of the University of Tennessee at Martin soccer team boasts a powerful arsenal, the Skyhawks dominated third-year program Southern Illinois throughout Thursday night’s season-opening duel, highlighted by the first collegiate goal from true freshman Makayla Robinson and the fifth career score from fifth-year senior Jaden Hildreth, capping off a 2-0 shutout over the Salukis.
While the UTM offense ran away with the contest over the final period of the opener, the highly-touted Skyhawk back four was as convincing as advertised, limiting SIU to a mere two shot attempts to give their own side an 11-shot cushion. Furthermore, graduate keeper Erica Myers continued her ascent towards the peak of the UT Martin record books with her 18th career shutout and 31st total victory, now standing just three shutouts away from tying the highest marker in the program’s 23-year history.
Capturing a W in the first outing of the schedule for the second year in a row, UTM needed a bit of time to reassemble themselves following three grueling exhibitions that signaled the end of an ultra-short offseason, unable to break through with a goal in any of their six shot attempts over the course of the first stanza.
Luckily, the Skyhawk defense was practically impenetrable, producing an almost-flawless performance that featured zero shots given up until the 87:31 mark on a free kick opportunity for Southern Illinois. The Salukis’ offensive frustrations eventually gave way to a 2-0 deficit once Robinson and Hildreth lit up the scoreboard, concluding UTM’s stellar showing in the first of 16 regular season meetings this fall.
UT Martin’s persistence on the attack was at last rewarded in the 59th minute on Thursday when midfielder Izzy Patterson connected with classmate Robinson on a freshman-to-freshman sequence that cemented the team’s eighth look at the net as the first one to hit the jackpot.
Fast forward 17 minutes, and Hildreth took on the Saluki defense unimpeded with a solo score from the left side of the stanchion to boost the lead to a commanding 2-0. The successful boot from the Germantown, Tenn. product marked the senior’s first goal since the 2018 campaign and effectively put the finishing touches on the squad’s third shutout in the past six contests dating back to the spring.
10 different UTM players gathered at least one shot try in the one-sided affair, while SIU’s Kaitlin DuCharme was the only visitor to come within a chance of a score, doing so twice in the game’s final two and a half minutes. Maddy Alaluf took the loss at goalie for the Salukis, registering a single save.
Now off to a racing start for the 2021 season, the Skyhawks now face a three-game road stretch that starts at the tail end of the weekend with a trip to Little Rock, Arkansas to battle the Trojans on Sunday afternoon. After posting a 4-7-3 record earlier this spring, the Trojans disposed of in-state foe Arkansas-Pine Bluff in a similar manner to that of UT Martin’s first win, completing a 3-0 shutout on a high-octane 31 shot attempts.
The Skyhawks’ second of eight non-conference scuffles will kick off at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday, where live-streamed coverage of the event can be found via ESPN+.