Wildcats Take No. 17 Indiana To the Wire

Wednesday, November 10

Bloomington, IN

1 p.m. CT

Northwestern

6-9-3, 3-5-0

Indiana

14-4-1, 5-3-0

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Northwestern	0	0	0	0
Indiana	0	0	1	1

Photo by: Roger Wimmer

Wildcats Take No. 17 Indiana To the Wire

11/11/2021 6:11:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, IND. – Northwestern's season came to a close on Wednesday at No. 17 Indiana, after a 1-0 loss in overtime in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals.

The Wildcats battled the Hoosiers to the overtime in a tightly contested knockout match and nearly scored the golden goal in overtime with four chances in quick succession all being denied by either the Hoosier defense or goalkeeper.

"We have a locker room full of guys that care immensely for each other, said head coach Russell Payne. "You could see it right now because there's a level of pride and extreme disappoint that they're feeling and they need to process."

"The effects of our double overtime game three days ago caught up with us in the second half," Payne continued. "We knew we were going to have to play for a few transitional moments and we were going to have to put up a strong defensive effort to give ourselves a chance. You saw two superb goalkeeper performances tonight, one form Miha and one from their goalkeeper. Miha was brilliant against Maryland and was superb tonight to give us a chance for those transitional moments. Their goalkeeper stepped up tonight and made three fantastic saves in overtime when we had enough to tip the scales iin our favor in a game when we didn't have a lot of the ball. We knew in the second half it would be difficult, so we had a gameplan to defend and look for transitional moments to win the game. We were inches close to executing our gameplay and winning the game."

"I'm grateful for my team, the seniors, and the emotion in the locker room, Payne concluded. "We left it all on the field. We want to say a massive thank you to the community for supporting us this season and our friends our family for supporting us this season as well. We'll continue to work hard and make you proud."

Senior goalkeeper Miha Miskovic made seven saves in the final match of a distinguished Wildcat career.

The entire Wildcat backline of Deng Deng Kur, Quinn Dudek, Spencer Farina, Collin McCamy and Ibraheim Obeid, filling in to due to injury, as well as substitue Logan Weaver turned in a strong effort to furstrate the Hoosiers throughout most of the afternoon.

Northwestern finished its season with its first appearance in the Big Ten Tournament semifinal since 2014. It was the fifth time in 10 years that the 'Cats have bowed out of the conference tournament at the hands of the Hoosiers.