Members of the SLU Billikens celebrate with Emily Gaebe after she scored a goal during Friday night’s A-10 Tournament win over VCU. (Photo: Thomas Grove)

A-10 Tournament – 1st Round	1	2	Final
#8 VCU (5-9-4)	0	0	0
#1 SLU (15-2-2)	2	0	2

Scoring Summary

Time	Team	Description
00:50		Lyndsey Heckel (4) Assisted By: Izzy Luebbert.
36:48		Emily Gaebe (14) Assisted By: Julia Simon.

Paige Dale
Staff Writer

ST. LOUIS, MO — Lyndsey Heckel scored on a corner kick just 50 seconds into the game, and Emily Gaebe scored a goal that helped her break two school records, as top-seeded Saint Louis University downed eighth-seeded VCU 2-0 in an Atlantic 10 Conference Women’s Soccer Championship quarterfinal match, Friday night at Hermann Stadium.

Saint Louis, which is now 15-2-2 on the season, will take on fifth-seeded Duquesne, which defeated fourth-seeded Massachusetts in another quarterfinal match earlier in the day, in the A-10 Championship semifinals, on Wednesday, November 1. That game will also be played at Hermann Stadium and will kickoff at 7 p.m.

A loud crowd of nearly 800 fans watched the Billikens take control of Friday’s match early and never let go. And it began less than a minute into the game.

Heckel took a perfect corner-kick feed from Izzy Luebbert and buried a header past VCU goalkeeper Allison Karpovich for her fourth goal the season and what proved to be her third game-winning goal this year.

Later in the first half, Gaebe made it 2-0 in the 37th minute with an assist from Julia Simon. Simon fired a shot that Karpovich saved, but Gaebe gathered the rebound and easily put it away.

The score was Gaebe’s league leading 14th goal this year. She also now has 34 points this season. Both of those marks are now Saint Louis women’s soccer school records.

Once the Billikens had a comfortable lead at the half, they turned it over to their defense, which smothered VCU the rest of the night. SLU outshot VCU 14-9 on the game and didn’t allow many legitimate scoring chances, as only five of those Ram shots were on goal, compared to 10 of SLU’s shots.

Billiken goalkeeper Emily Puricelli made five saves — all in the second half — including a sprawling diving save on a penalty kick to preserve the shutout.

The victory was SLU’s eighth in a row, its eighth shutout in a row, and extended the Billikens’ unbeaten match streak to 14 in a row.

BILLIKEN NOTABLES
• The Billikens improved to 21-5-1 in A-10 Championship play overall and 10-3-1 in tournament openers. They improved their record vs. VCU to 7-3-1, winning six of the last seven meetings.
• Since 2016, SLU is 48-1-2 vs. A-10 opponents (regular season and tournament combined) at Hermann Stadium.
• Saint Louis extended its school record with its eighth consecutive shutout and set a school mark for consecutive shutout minutes (740:31).
• SLU earned advantages of 14-9 in total shots, 7-5 in shots on goal and 11-2 in corner kicks.
• The Heckel-from-Luebbert goal was a new player combination for the Bills. Saint Louis has 48 assisted goals this year, produced by 43 different player combos.
• Emily Gaebe extended her point-scoring streak to 10 games. Gaebe has 28 points (12G, 4A) during the streak.
• Gaebe moved into sole possession of third place on Saint Louis’ career goals chart with 30.
• Lyndsey Heckel’s goal was her fourth of the year and her ninth career game-winning goal, placing her in a seventh-place tie on SLU’s all-time list.
• Izzy Luebbert’s assist was her seventh of the season, tying for the team lead. Luebbert has five helpers in the last six matches.
• Julia Simon collected her fourth assist of the year.
• Emily Puricelli recorded her 63rd career victory and 37th career clean sheet. Puricelli is now just one shutout shy of tying Meghann Burke’s SLU career shutout record. She made her 81st career start, moving into a fifth-place tie in Billiken history, and she moved into a second-place tie in career saves (243).

SLU sports information contributed to this story.

QUARTERFINALS – Friday, October 27
Match 1: No. 8 VCU at No. 1 SLU SLU won 2-0
Match 2: No. 5 Duquesne at 4 Massachusetts Duquesne won 2-1
Match 3: No. 7 Rhode Island at No. 2 La Salle La Salle won 2-0
Match 4: No. 6 Saint Joseph’s at No. 3 Dayton Dayton won 1-0

SEMIFINALS – Wednesday, November 1
Match 5: No. 5 Duquesne at No. 1 SLU Watch Live Live Stats
Match 6: No. 3 Dayton at No. 2 La Salle Watch Live Live Stats

CHAMPIONSHIP – Sunday, November 5 On Campus of Higher Seed
Match 7: Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6, Noon Watch Live Live Stats