Northwestern
Penn State
No. 3 Penn State Outlasts Northwestern, 2-1
9/30/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Soccer
Sept. 30, 2005
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EVANSTON, Ill.--Playing without their leading goal scorer, the Northwestern women's soccer team dropped a hard-fought 2-1 decision to the third-ranked Nittany Lions of Penn State this afternoon at the Thomas Athletic Complex in Evanston. The loss drops Northwestern to 7-3-1 and 0-2-1 in the Big Ten while Penn State remains perfect with an 11-0-0 mark and a 3-0-0 mark in conference action.
Northwestern head coach Jenny Haigh was pleased with the effort put forth by her team despite the close loss.
"It was disappointing because we were in the game," Haigh said. "We had a very good first half. We struggled a little bit with energy and winning the ball there in the second half. I think we just got caught on our heels. I thought we fought hard. I'm proud of our team and I'll take that effort any day."
The Wildcats were playing with out the services of their top goal scorer, Kelsey Hans (Lakeville, Minn./Lakeville), who was suffering from the effects of a mild concussion sustained earlier in the week.
"It was a huge bummer not having her in the lineup," Haigh said. "She's explosive and makes big things happen out of nothing. That is always a tough element not to have on the field. But I thought we had a lot of other players step up. We had eight freshmen on the field and the whole team gave a tremendous effort."
Penn State opened up the scoring in the 14th minute when Tiffany Weimer fired a crossing shot from right to left in front of the goal to put the Nittany Lions up 1-0.
But the feisty Wildcats fired right back less than a minute later with a goal of their own when Krystal Patterson (St. Louis, Mo./Shiloh-Ga.) found Tabitha Lowey (Peachtree City, Ga./Mcintosh) in front of the goal to tie the game at 1-1 in the 15th minute. On the play, Patterson fired a crossing pass from the left side to a wide open Lowey who knocked it in on the right side of the goal.
The game-winner came six and a half minutes later when Weimer found the back of the net for the second time when she broke ahead of the pack and drove the ball past a charging Whitney Jones (Glen Ellyn, Ill./Glenbard West) in goal to make it 2-1. Jones finished the game with five saves.
Penn State outshot Northwestern, 19-13, while NU had a 6-5 advantage on corner kicks.
Northwestern is back in action this Sunday, Oct. 2 when they take on the Minnesota Golden Gophers at home. Game time is slated for 12:30 p.m.
