Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern
Penn State (Big Ten Tournament)
Wildcats' Tournament Run Ends, 1-0
11/14/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 14, 2003
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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Northwestern's cinderella run at the Big Ten Championship ended Friday night as the Wildcats fell 1-0 to No. 6 Penn State in the conference semifinal at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
After upsetting nationally ranked and second-seeded Michigan 2-1 Thursday afternoon, the Wildcats seemed poised to make a march into uncharted waters. However, the defending Big Ten Tournament champion Nittany Lions played up to their title and held on to clinch a second consecutive final appearance. They will play top-seeded Indiana Sunday.
Northwestern (7-7-6) opened up the match playing with leftover emotion from Thursday's win and pressured Penn State, outshooting the Nittany Lions 6-1 in the early going.
However, PSU (9-10-0) steadied and the emotion that had been fueling the 'Cats turned into somewhat of a hindrance.
"We were living off of the emotion and momentum from (Thursday's win) those first 25 minutes," said head coach Tim Lenahan. "But it is tough to play back-to-back matches that are so emotional. I think if we had put a goal in early like we did against Michigan, things might have been different, but we just kind of ran out of gas emotionally."
With the match scoreless, Penn State made a few tactical adjustments at halftime and gave NU problems the remainder of the match.
The problems culminated at 79:42 when Penn State's Joe Zewe went airborne and headed a Brian Devlin shot past Northwestern's Justin Pines to give the Nittany Lions the game-winner.
Northwestern had a golden opportunity with 10 seconds left in the contest when freshman Brad North fired a close-range shot on goal, but Penn State goalkeeper Matt Novchich got a hand on it and knocked it away to seal the tournament championship berth.
Lenahan was proud of his team's performance and feels as though they earned respect around the league.
"I think we were kind of the talk of the weekend," Lenahan said. "I think we've established ourselves a program that is going to be a major player in the Big Ten Conference."
With the win against Michigan, the 'Cats accomplished a pair of their season goals. First, they finished at or above .500; and second, they won a tournament match.
