Senior goalkeeper breaks EIU shutout record

Senior goalkeeper breaks EIU shutout record Categories: Soccer Senior goalkeeper breaks EIU shutout record Gabe Newman, Sports Editor • October 12, 2026 Alex Silva Eastern Illinois senior goalkeeper Ella Krachtovil pumps her fist after a save during the EIU women’s soccer 3-0 win over Lindenwood at Lakeside Field on Sunday. Krachtovil ended the game with a shutout, breaking the EIU all-time record for shutouts by a goalkeeper. The newly installed Lakeside Field speakers crackled to life with a countdown of the final 10 seconds of the EIU women’s soccer game against Lindenwood. The Panthers were winning 3-0. The result was firmly in hand. However, each passing second was music to senior goalkeeper Ella Kratochvil’s ears. Fans in the grandstands joined in on counting down the final few seconds, and when the horn from the scoreboard sounded, Kratochvil etched her name into program history. For the 20th time in her four-year career, Kratochvil kept a clean sheet and shattered the EIU program record for shutouts in a career by a goalkeeper in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Lindenwood. The record, which was set at 19.5 and held by Tiffany Groene, has stood since 2005. For Kratochvil, it’s an achievement that she couldn’t have fathomed a few years ago as an incoming freshman. “Freshman year me would have no clue that I’d ever be put in this position,” Kratochvil said. “I came in not knowing if I was going to play. There were some pretty solid keepers in front of me that I knew I had to outwork.”  It was a bigger battle than just winning the starting job for Kratochvil; she had to repair her love of the game itself.   Her time playing soccer at Muskego High School is a period of her life she doesn’t look back fondly on. She said she lost a lot of relationships because of her high school soccer experience.  “I hated high school soccer, I’m not even going to lie,” Kratochvil said. “I lost a lot of my love for soccer while I was in high school.”  Her experience at the club level wasn’t much more enjoyable, and so Kratochvil retained another one of the many sports she played as a child: Volleyball.  It was as a volleyball player that Kratochvil finally felt like she was having some fun. After all, she led her Muskego High School volleyball team in blocks three out of the four years that she played, hitting percentage in two out of the four years she spent on varsity, and led the Warriors in kills, hitting percentage and blocks in her senior year, as Muskego made a run to a Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association sectional final.   Kratochvil’s work rate was always noticeable, according to Autumn Dibb, one of her volleyball and soccer teammates who plays basketball at Valparaiso. “I played two years of volleyball and soccer with Ella, and there was not a day where she wasn’t giving 100% effort at practice or putting in extra work outside of it,” Dibb said.  That work rate motivated Dibb, especially in volleyball.   “I played the same position as her,” Dibb said. “As an underclassman, I looked up to her a lot.” Eastern Illinois women’s soccer senior goalkeeper Ella Kratochvil saves a ball from a corner kick while she gets four saves on the day during EIU’s 0-0 draw against Indiana State at Lakeside Field on Thursday. (Patrick Schmitz) Though she knew that soccer was the sport that she wanted to play in college, Kratochvil said that playing volleyball throughout high school made her more explosive and allowed her vertical to reach a point where it helped her make a few saves as a goalkeeper that she otherwise wouldn’t have made.  Because the movements from volleyball translated well to soccer, Kratochvil decided there was no reason to stop, and even focused on volleyball in her junior and senior years.  The problem, though, was that playing volleyball led to very long days and her missing out parts of her club training session.   As a member of Polonia Soccer Club based in Franklin, Wisconsin, Kratochvil would be going non-stop from the time the school day started at 7:25 in the morning through after school volleyball practice. By the time volleyball practice was over, she had to hustle to get to soccer practice. Even then, sometimes, there wouldn’t be enough time in the day.  “I was late half the time and then I’d miss the warmups and the shooting and then I’d just get into basic passing at the end,” Kratochvil said.  Typically, Division I soccer players must play at a high-level club to be noticed and recruited, according to Eastern head coach Dirk Bennett.   However, he said that one of his points of pride as a coach is going to high school camps to see athletes play that aren’t on one of the big, high-level club teams.   It wasn’t like Kratochvil was surrounded by bad players, though. She said she was surrounded by players she knew would go far, including ones that went on to win the Wisconsin Gatorade Player of the Year award.  So, when Bennett, who was an assistant coach at the time under Jake Plant, saw Kratochvil’s skillset and her club of choice, he acknowledged that instead of going to a club that was better equipped to help her be recruited, Kratochvil’s decision to play for Polonia was rooted in loyalty and a liking of her surroundings.   “I appreciate that,” Bennett said, “because Eastern’s a place where if you’re always looking for the next thing or the first thing to complain about, then it’s not going to work out for you here.”  Kratochvil won the starting job near the beginning of conference play her freshman year, and started the final nine games of the season. Going into her sophomore year, she was prepared to win the battle for the starting job again.   However, on the third day of preseason ahead of the 2024 campaign, Kratochvil fractured her wrist and was sidelined for all of non-conference play. Kratochvil’s return was marked with a clean sheet in a 0-0 draw with Lindenwood. That Eastern team went on to take points off the top three in the league, which included Lindenwood, Tennessee Tech and Little Rock.   “When I came back, we just taped the heck out of [the wrist],” Kratochvil said. “I could barely get my glove on with how much tape there was. I still tape my wrist for every single game because I don’t want that to ever happen again.”  Eastern turned its attention to 2025 following another playoff exit to SEMO. With Kratochvil starting all but the season opener last season, the Panther defense grew some solid structure, as Kratochvil grew more confident with her back line in front of her.   Eastern got out to one of its strongest starts to conference play, as Kratochvil recorded a program-record six consecutive clean sheets. The Panthers didn’t concede a goal in over 646 minutes, the third-longest stretch without allowing a goal in Ohio Valley Conference history, and started conference play by winning five of their first six games and remained unbeaten in all six.   Even though the season ended with four straight losses and a 3-0 loss to Southern Indiana in the OVC quarterfinals to end the year, Kratochvil’s eight clean sheets was third-best in the OVC and earned her OVC Goalkeeper of the Year honors.   Sunday’s record-breaking clean sheet was the sixth of the year for Kratochvil, who began the season with back-to-back shutouts. It was the first time Eastern had begun the season with shutouts in its first two games since 2017.   Kratochvil also kept a clean sheet in 0-0 draws with Indiana State and Cincinnati, as well as a 3-0 win over Purdue-Fort Wayne.   “The past four years have been truly memorable for me,” Kratochvil said. “Twenty [shutouts] is cool, but the memories are just so much better than the accolade.”  Gabe Newman can be reached at [email protected]. View Story Comments 0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story Leave a Comment Tags: dirk bennett EIU women's soccer Ella Kratochvil More to Discover More in Soccer Panthers of the Week: Amara Leppla, San Askin EIU freshman forward scores two goals in 3-0 win over Lindenwood Panthers of the Week: Bernardo Hanel, Alex Tetteh Panthers beat SIUE for first time since 1996 EIU women's soccer beats Western Illinois on senior day EIU men's soccer loses OVC opener to Western Illinois About the Contributors Gabe Newman, Sports Editor Gabe Newman is a senior journalism major, and he can be reached at [email protected]. He previously served as assistant sports editor. Patrick Schmitz, Editor-in-Chief Patrick Schmitz is a senior sports media relations major and can be reached at [email protected]. He previously served as assistant sports editor and assistant photo editor. Alex Silva, Photographer Alex Silva is a freshman marketing major and can be reached at [email protected].