In sports, they say tying is like kissing your sister. No one likes it, it doesn’t benefit anyone and it’s quite honestly flat out disgusting.

The Oakland women’s soccer team is no stranger to the tie this season. In fact, Juan Pablo Favero’s squad has suffered (Endured? Achieved? Secured?) a record-tying seven ties so far this season.

For context, the women’s soccer team has only tied seven matches one other time in program history, back in 2015. However, in 2015, Oakland didn’t record its seventh tie until the 21st match of the season. The 2022 Golden Grizzlies have reached seven ties in just their 12th match of the season.

The latest draw came against IUPUI, with a score of 0-0. The scoreless draw is the fourth such tie for Oakland so far this season. 

Despite the no-scoring affair, it wasn’t for a lack of effort on offense from either team. Oakland recorded 13 shots — six of which were on goal — and IUPUI shot 11 times — five of which were on target.

Obviously, all shots were saved in the match. Oakland goaltender Noëmi Stadelmann was an anchor in goal for the Golden Grizzlies.

Stadelmann, who is a fifth-year player from Switzerland, has done a fantastic job in the net this year despite the lack of help on the offensive side of the ball. 

As a team, the Golden Grizzlies have only given up more than one goal once all season. In fact, as of this writing, Stadelmann has only allowed five goals all year, which is good for a 0.48 goals allowed per game average.

Stadelmann’s remarkable effort is going to waste due to Oakland’s inability to score. The team has scored 11 goals in 12 matches. You don’t have to be a math genius to realize that’s less than one goal per game. 

The Golden Grizzlies have also held six of their 12 opponents scoreless. However, Oakland has only won two of those six shutouts. 

All of these scoring struggles have led Oakland to the bottom of the Horizon League standings. It sits third from the bottom, as one of the three winless teams in the conference (joined by Youngstown State and Green Bay.)

Oakland still has six conference matches to go, but if it can’t score more than one goal per game, it’s going to be very hard to make up any ground in the Horizon League standings. 

The Golden Grizzlies are currently 3-2-7 overall on the season and 0-1-3 in conference play. They will travel to Cleveland State to take on the Vikings on Thursday, Oct. 6 before coming back home for a two-game home stand against Robert Morris and Northern Kentucky.

At the end of Oakland’s schedule is Detroit Mercy, which will visit Oakland for senior night on Wednesday, Oct. 26. 

The Titans, which are near the top of the Horizon League standings, have not tied a conference match yet this season. If that fact still remains true when the two teams meet on the 26th, it shouldn’t shock anyone if Detroit Mercy heads back home knowing what it’s like to kiss its sister.