The Creighton women's soccer team made its lone goal by freshman Brittney Neumann stand up as the Bluejays knocked off Evansville 1-0 on Sunday in the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament at Morrison Stadium.

The win secured a spot in the Valley tournament semifinals against No. 2 seed Missouri State at 6 p.m. on Friday at Morrison Stadium.

The 11th shutout of the season is a school record.

The win was the second in four days against the Purple Aces. Creighton ended its regular season by coming back from a 1-0 deficit and winning at Evansville on Thursday.

Creighton coach Bruce Erickson said it's always difficult beating the same team in such a short time span.

“I think it's always hard to come back and play the same team three days later especially after scoring some goals and playing pretty well on Thursday,” Erickson said.

CU's goal came just 57 seconds into the second half on a play that started with a corner kick by sophomore Erin Gunther.

Claire Zach attempted to head the ball into the goal off the corner kick. Zach's shot hit an Evansville defender and the rebound went right to Neumann, who put it away.

It was the seventh goal of the year for the freshman from Millard North.

Neumann said she was pleased with her goal output this season.

“It was really exciting because I didn't expect to play much this year. Scoring those goals gave me an opportunity to play more,” Neumann said.

Erickson said his team is looking forward to hosting the rest of the conference tournament next weekend.

“It's been difficult for the home team to win the tournament at home if you look at the past six or seven years,” Erickson said. “I would rather it be here than playing on the road.”

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